jason malmont

The emotions poured out onto center court at Gene Evans Gymnasium Friday night as the buzzer sounded and the curtain lowered on the Carlisle girls basketball season. The Thundering Herd had defeated Chambersburg 57-43 in a Mid-Penn Commonwealth finale for both teams. A season of high expectations for a senior-laden Carlisle lineup ended with the playoffs out of reach, but that didn’t stop the players and a full-throated student section from storming the court to serenade the seniors and celebrate their contributions to a program that has learned to measure its progress one victory at a time.

“This is the group that I started with three years ago,” Carlisle head coach Kelsey Stasyszyn said. “They set the bar high. They have a lot of buy-in from the younger girls that look up to them. They’re leaving a legacy at Carlisle, and I’m proud of them.”

That legacy includes, after Friday’s victory, a 12-10 record, the most wins in a Carlisle girls basketball season since 2011-12, which was also the last time the Herd finished with a winning record.

“We kind of knew playoffs were out of the question,” said senior Ryleigh Poole, “so we were looking more toward what goals we can accomplish. We knew that Carlisle hasn’t had a winning season in years, so that was our main goal. Tonight, we accomplished that.”

For Poole and six other Carlisle seniors honored in a ceremony before the game, Friday marked a bittersweet end to a season and to a varsity career. Most of the Herd’s seven seniors had played together in the Carlisle program