Four years ago, Lexie Buis, Camryn Stecken and Tessa Krull all began their journey as varsity softball players for Seneca High School.

On Saturday in the IHSA Class 2A state championship game, their amazing and record-breaking trip came to an end with a runner-up finish after a 3-1 loss to Carterville at the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex in Peoria to end the season 39-3.

“Those three young ladies have been tremendous leaders, even to a certain extent since they were all freshmen,” Seneca coach Brian Holman said. “They’ve been through some good times and bad times, but this year they were the reason we never wavered and stayed on track.

“Sometimes as a coach you sell your soul as far as handing the reins of leadership to high school athletes. Sometimes those kids can’t handle that responsibility, but Cam, Tessa and Lexie took that challenge and ran with it. They have been as good as it gets from a coaching perspective, and now we’ll just have to find six more shoes to fill.”

In the past four seasons, the Fighting Irish have compiled a sparking 129-18 record, including three regional titles before this season’s thrilling run. The teams also went 59-1 in Tri-County Conference games with four titles and a current 53-game conference winning streak.

“I think everyone in and around this team knew we had the talent to be playing in the game we just played,” Holman said after the championship contest. “I really felt one of my biggest jobs as a coach this year was to try and make every game in front of us feel the same no matter the context. That’s a hard job, especially when the postseason rolls around and that goal you haven’t really talked much about is a few wins away.

“I’m not sure if I did a great job with that, but the girls sure did. They did exactly what we asked of them for 42 games this season. It was just an amazing season.”

Stecken said that making to state was a goal, but the team knew it would more than likely have to find a way to defeat Beecher along the way, a squad they’d lost to in the previous two year’s sectional title games.

“These four years have been so amazing,” Stecken said. “Yeah, the last two were disappointing, but this year we were determined to not let that happen again. I’m just so thankful to be part of this team and part of what it accomplished.

“Our goal was just to get here, just to get to state. Most of us have played at this complex and on this field with our travel teams, but it really hit different coming here representing Seneca High School and our community. It really was an honor.”

Krull said her emotions were changing second to second as she thought about of all the practices, bus rides, games and just “hanging out” times over the past four years.

“My emotions are really split right now,” Krull said. “I’m not really disappointed that we finished second, because we came here, showed we belonged here and played as a hard as we could. I’m sad because this was my last time playing for Seneca and last time playing with some of the best teammates I could have wished for. I’m happy because this season was just an amazing journey.

“Being my senior year, to be here right now watching my teammates taking pictures holding that trophy is so cool. We all worked very hard all season to be the best we could be. We didn’t actually ever talk about having a goal to make it to state, it was just something we all knew we could do if we played like we knew we could.”

Buis said she reflected on so many memories on the bus ride to Peoria on Saturday. She added she felt one of the biggest strengths of this year’s squad was the ability to stay in the moment and not look ahead.

“I’m just so proud of everyone on this team,” Buis said. “Losing to Beecher the past two years was so frustrating, it was a little like today where we played a really good game but just fell short. I was thinking on the bus ride here today how, no matter the outcome, this team has accomplished something no other Seneca softball team had done. I’m just so proud of what we we’ve done.

“Coach Holman is always talking about not making a situation or a game bigger than it truly is. You just have to treat every game the same. I feel like even today, playing in the championship game, everyone did that.”