The Bulldog volleyball team’s 2019 season came to an end Wednesday as they lost to Sauk Rapids-Rice, 3-2 in the first round of the Section 8AAA tournament.

The match went five sets with the fifth set going to overtime, but in the end the #9-seeded Storm prevailed with an 18-16 victory.

No. 8-seeded Becker won the first set, 26-24, then lost set #2,  25-23. They bounced back in set three with a 25-22 win, but lost set four by a 25-21 score.

The loss sent the Bulldogs to the offseason with an overall record of 12-16.

The Bulldogs struggled late in the season after started the 2019 campaign looking very strong. Injuries and illnesses took their toll and when top player, Kady Lindbom injured her ankle earlier this month, the loss was too much to bear.

Becker began the season with a win over Big Lake and after a 3-0 setback to Centennial, rolled off five straight wins to improve to 6-1. Back-to-back losses, then back-to-back wins had the Bulldogs at 8-3 midway through September. They managed four more wins and four more losses by the end of the month, but October was not friendly to the Bulldogs.

Five straight losses to St. Francis, Monticello, Cambridge-Isanti, Melrose and Pine River had the team reeling. They managed a tie against Dassel-Cokato Oct. 12 and pulled out a big win over Zimmerman that same day, but closed out the regular season with losses to Pine River and Princeton before losing their section playoff match.

Head Coach Greg Lynch will lose seven girls to graduation this year but hopes some of the younger girls in the ranks will be ready to fill the shoes of Lexi Anderson, Lindsey Fruth, Allie Hill, Tina Gruber, Alyssa Gruenes, Jillian Olson and Breein Waytashek next season.