The Hopkinton High School cheerleading team struggled at the start of the winter season but ended it by bringing home some hardware at the regional competition for the first time in more than a decade.

“For the past few seasons, they have been on an upward trajectory,” said coach Ally Link. “This season, they scored higher than they ever have.”

The winter season got off to an inauspicious start. Link described the first competition as “very rough.” But Hopkinton bounced back the very next day and managed to take home first place in its second competition without an intervening practice.

“I think they all just realized that the coaches were upset and they had a heart-to-heart and said, ‘We all want this so bad, and we have to be on the same page about wanting it,’ ’’ Link said. “We had to put in the effort.”

Link said she could see the entire attitude of the team literally change overnight.

“They went out there and took every correction they were given and said, ‘Let’s see what we are capable of,’ ’’ she said. “They didn’t want people to think [the first meet] is how they compete.”

After righting the ship, Hopkinton capped off the season by finishing second at the regional meet and earning a spot in the state competition.

“We didn’t get the score we wanted in the states,” Link said. “It wasn’t high enough [to qualify] for New England, but it was higher than they had been scoring in the past. They put on a good performance, and they were happy with the way the year ended.”

Link said that the team’s captains, Jordyn Richard and Katerina DellaCioppa, provided strong leadership throughout the year.

“They have kind of built the team from the ground up  in their four years here,” Link said. “We would not have achieved the skill level that we did without them.”

Fellow senior Ava DeLong was a selfless leader for the Hillers, and several strong sophomores and juniors contributed to the team’s success. One of those juniors, Ella Carpenter, stepped in for three meets as an alternate and, Link said, “absolutely saved us.”

“We have really great sophomores and juniors,” the coach said. “Every kid had put in so much effort to improve and make corrections. I have never seen a group of kids who wanted to succeed and who did more to make it happen.”

Link is hopeful that the finish at regionals will set a new bar for the program in the seasons to come. She said the Hillers will keep making their routines more challenging to allow them the chance to score more points and continue to compete with the best teams in the area.

“We are definitely aiming to keep the momentum going,” Link said.