By James Herold
On Sept. 22, the Grand Rapids Community College Volleyball team returned home to Ford Fieldhouse to face Bay College and won 3-1 in four sets (25-17) (25-18) (24-26) (25-14) to cruise to their eighth straight win.
Freshman Lizzie MacIntosh, sophomore Braelyn Berry and freshman Lilly Peterson all had 11 kills, while freshman Ava Schultz was the team’s most efficient attacker with a .438 hitting percentage (10 kills, three errors, 16 attempts). Berry, who earned conference defensive player of the week honors and teammate freshman Carle Bruggema combined for four aces and 16 digs. Vienna Koenigsknecht led all players with 13 digs.
No. 11 ranked GRCC is now 10-3 overall and 4-0 in conference play. GRCC commanded the first two sets with near double-digit leads. In the third set, GRCC started with a big lead but slowly fell apart with costly errors, losing the set by two points. GRCC started slow, trailing in the first part of the fourth set, but regained control, leading to the win.
“They were disappointed with their energy level and their focus,” said Head Coach Chip Will. “…They understood that when we lose to an opponent, a lot of times it’s going to be on us. So it’s a learning lesson to say like you know hey, doesn’t matter who we play, when we play, there’s a level of expectation that we expect out of our kids when we step out on the floor, and they didn’t do that for a large part of it, but I liked that they regrouped and came back in the first half…it doesn’t matter what team we are playing, we are stepping on the floor to prepare ourselves best to win a national title.”
After the game, MacIntosh reflected on her team’s performance.
“I definitely think we were able to grind it out in the fourth set starting off stronger than we finished in the third,” MacIntosh said. “Yeah, I definitely think we came together better as a team instead of playing as individuals. I think starting stronger, and just communicating, having a lot of higher energy, because we play with more energy.”
GRCC will face Montcalm Community College at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 27 in Sydney, Michigan.
