Had our University Prep Volleyball end of season banquet last night (4/19/24). This is where the team voted to have it. I took one star away only because the reservation was where everything got messed up. Made a reservation a month ahead of time and then when we called to confirm, they said they couldn't do the time we wanted (7pm Friday night). They could only do 5 or 9 and we couldn't do either of those times. So they suggested someone come in early the day of the party and tell them how many are coming (25 for us). Our mistake was not getting names, so if you wanna make reservations make sure you write down who you spoke with. So I showed up 2 hours early and at first I was told they couldn't accommodate us at all. Then I was told that they couldn't guarantee that we'd all be together. I was upset and stressing because I didn't wanna let the team down. Anyway, ended up speaking with a manager (didn't get her name either and all I can say is that it was a white lady, maybe middle aged). She pulled me over to the side, explained the miscommunication and said that she'd try to get us in, but wouldn't guarantee that we'd all be together. Then she asked what it was for and I told her and she said she'd "make it work". And she did! Around 730 we were all being seated plus a few more that showed up that weren't in our original number. And I saw her personally getting the area ready for us. Wish I had got her name because I was so grateful. She was professional, great at de-escalating the situation and I actually didn't feel like I was talking to an employee, but someone who cared about the situation wanted to see everything work out So once we were seated, now the big stress is gonna be how to deal with the checks for 30 people. Everyone knows when you have big groups, when the bill comes people all of a sudden forget they ordered the most expensive item on the menu. 10 or 15 separate checks would be great, but they couldn't do that, so they ended up doing 4 and it worked out in the end thanks to some of our great team parents One name I did get was Conner. He was our server and he was great! When he and the other server first started taking drink orders, they had to stop a couple of times and talk to the manager about splitting the checks, but Conner was unbothered. He was polite, funny, attentive to all the requests and handled this large party as if he's been doing it for years. If you get him as your server, everything's gonna be taken care of! So we all were together thanks to the manager, the food was good and Conner was awesome. Now, if you have presentations to make for a team banquet, it'll be a little difficult because of the noise level but that's to be expected for a Friday night at 7 with major sporting events happening. But this is where the team voted to go and I'm just glad it all worked out