Week 5 Recap: All-Thumb Edition
The Thumb saw a wild week in the volleyball scene. Particularly in the Greater Thumb West conference, the conference saw major shifts with a handful of upsets and scares. Here’s your weekly recap of happenings on the volleyball court in…
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Continue ReadingThe Thumb saw a wild week in the volleyball scene. Particularly in the Greater Thumb West conference, the conference saw major shifts with a handful of upsets and scares.
Here’s your weekly recap of happenings on the volleyball court in the Thumb.
It’s Anyone’s Game
The GTW lit up this week with all the teams coming out to play. The week started as usual while Thursday shook everything up. Starting in Cass City, the Hawks hosted the Unionville-Sebewaing Patriots. The Patriots came in from a tough 5-set loss to Caro on Tuesday. What looked to be a tough match or an easy win for USA, the Hawks had other plans. Having the most congruent play of the season, the Hawks shot out hot to a 17-3 start. After USA came alive, the Hawks took the set 28-26 but then the next two sets.
Hailey Beckrow was the top performer with 20 kills, hitting .353 and posting 6 blocks. Sierra Spry was a good compliment having 9 terminations on a .348 clip with 7 bocks! OH Macey White was a defensive dynamo with 30+ digs. This included an amazing give-it-your-all play going into the bench to save the ball that led to match point.
Over in Reese, the then-undefeated Bad Axe Hatchets came to town. The Rockets came out with fire knocking the Hatchet’s flat in the first set 25-13. The Hatchets struggled to get back in system, dropping the game 3-1. The biggest performer came from the outside with Maddi Osantowski posting 22 kills and 29 digs.
In Vassar, the Caro Tigers had a scare dropping the first set to the Vulcans. After the first set, Tigers picked it back up to play their normal ball.
Going into week 6, the GTW is lead by Reese that is undefeated at 2-0. Followed behind are Bad Axe, Cass City, and Caro at 2-1, while the remainder has all yet to win a game.
Harbor Beach Continues March to GTE Gold
Harbor Beach swept through their weekly matchups against Ubly and Sandusky. MB Amber Pleiness continued her hot streak at the net, combining for 18 kills hitting .469 between both matches. OH Jenna Guza had a great week offensively. Behind Pleiness, Guza dropped 17 kills and hit .438. Defensively, libero Claire Woodke posted 23 digs and on 27 attempts passed at a rate of 85%.
Brown City breezed through Capac with the pins coming in big. Between the duo of Grace Schlaud and Makayla Cournaya, the two combined for 19 kills and hit .430.
After dropping Tuesday’s match to Ubly rebounded and swept Capac on Thursday. MB Allison Lautner was the offensive bomb throughout the week as she combined for a total of 27 kills through six sets.
The Race Comes to Two in the BWAC
North Branch continued its impressive play in the BWAC, zooming past Richmond. The Broncos were another team that gave all-out team effort for the dub. As a team, North Branch hit for a superb .321 with four attackers each with 5 kills. The most impressive performance came behind the service line from OH Breann June. June totaled 12 aces in the sweep with only one error.
Cros-Lex continued the undefeated streak as well with a 3-1 win over Yale. Maia Fagan had a season-high night. The six-rotation outside had 15 kills in the match with only one error. MB Ashley Westbrook was huge on net defense with 7 blocks.
Other Key Performers
Allyson Kemp, Sr, OH, USA – The senior outside averaged 3.22 kills per set throughout the week. Despite going 2-5 this week between league play and tournament play, Kemp was the go-to arm. She posted 58 kills and hit for .209 against top-notch competition.