Lady Gladiators celebrate Senior Day honoring Figueroa, Turner and Westbrook
Senior Lady Gladiators’ Monserrat Figueroa, Paige Westbrook and Taylor Turner display their poster photo collages, cards and roses each received while being honored following their final home game inside Italy Coliseum. (Barry Byers)
Italy — The Lady Gladiator Volleyball team hosted their Senior Day on the final day of homecoming week with seniors Monserrat Figueroa, Taylor Turner and Paige Westbrook being honored.
At the conclusion of the game against Frost, it didn’t take long for the tears to flow with Figueroa being escorted by her mother, Blanca Figueroa, Westbrook being escorted by her sister Courtney Westbrook and Turner being escorted by her father, Paul Cockerham along with teammate and younger sister, Halee Turner.
It was truly emotional as Figueroa, Westbrook and Turner reflected on their careers as both athletes and students. All those coaches speeches, all those nail biting sets, all those locker room antics, all those road trips back-and-forth from away games and all those forever moments that had occurred right there under the dome shaped Italy Coliseum and the unique experience it offers.
All three players were each presented with a poster collage and a bouquet of roses, followed by hugs from teammates and coaches Morgan Mathews and Tina Richards. Italy’s fans offered warm ovations during the introductions who will certainly miss the leadership qualities of these three young ladies.
The Lady Gladiators ended their season in Covington where they won in three straight sets to help the Figueroa, Turner and Westbrook go out with a victory!
We are so proud of our seniors and equally proud of the entire team for the effort each player displayed on the courts this season while representing Italy High School. We hope you look back on your volleyball careers fondly because we fans certainly will.