The Baldwin boys volleyball team ended their season on Tuesday night with a 3-0 loss to Pine-Richland in the first round of WPIAL playoffs.

Junior Brayden Gremba said Pine-Richland played a very clean and polished game.

“They played very well together and made very few errors as a team,” Gremba said.

Junior Dylan Leonhardt agreed that Pine-Richland played a good game.

“They did a good job of forcing us into bad spots,” Leonhardt said. “They also made fewer mistakes than we did.”

Gremba does not enjoy the feeling of ending the season with a tough loss in the playoffs, but he sees some positives in the loss.

“We can take that loss and the feeling of losing in the playoffs as fuel for next year to come back better,” Gremba said

Even with the tough loss, Leonhardt enjoyed the experience of playing in a playoff game.

“At first, I thought playing in the playoff game was a lot of pressure,” Leonhardt said. “But after the game started, it was just a lot of fun.”

The Highlanders blocked well as a team, but junior Alex Kelly particularly stood out to Gremba.

“Alex played very well all around, hitting and especially blocking, which gave us some momentum at points in the game,” Gremba said.

Leonhardt agreed Kelly played well and he also gave shoutouts to Gremba and freshman Rohan Gurung.

The Highlanders hope to build on this playoff season and become better next season with a lot of their team returning.