By Shy’Ana Thomas
With The Raiders continuing their winning streak, the Grand Rapids Community College volleyball team won their last two games of the season. The Raiders rounded off the season with two home games that both ended in a 3-0 victory against Bay College and Alpena Community College who are both a returning opponent of theirs.
The Raiders were successful in all three sets in each game that averaged 5 points in each set for the second home game. These wins kept the Raiders home winning streak 11-0, overall wins with a streak of 17 and conference wins being a record of 12-0. This win wraps the season up on their overall season record of 19-2, only losing two matches the whole season.
GRCC beats Alpena on Sophomore night
The Raiders walked away with one of their best victories of the season against the LumberJacks which is their second win against them on Oct 25 , beating them in all three sets, 25-9, 25-6, and 25-19. In the first set that was a staggering 25-9 with the Raiders coming in with a .318 hitting average. Having 10 kills with only three errors and 22 attempts.
In set two the hitting average was .387 with 15 kills just five more than the first set. Another three errors and 31 attempts total. For the last set they won again with a hitting average of .308 and 12 kills. The errors went to four and the attempts moved to 26. GRCC ended the game with a total of 37 kills, 10 errors, 79 attempts, and a hitting average of .342. The player with the most kills was freshman outside hitter Taylor Kik coming in with seven. Sophomore Joslynne Bogner had six kills and Sophomore Lillian Peterson had five which led them to the leaderboard for the game.
The Raiders winning streak reached 16 after the win against Alpena, head coach Chip Will spoke after the game on what’s been the key to success so far this season,
“I mean it’s cliche to say but really just trying to get better everyday,” Will said. “We know what our goal is, trying to win a national championship. So staying mentally healthy and physically healthy while trying to have fun but also getting better.”
Sylvia Peterson carried the night with the most aces at four. Cece Huizingh and Meredith Simmons each had one ace. Sami Baker and Carle Bruggema finished the night with the most assists with 14 and 10.
“It was fun, we were able to play all our sophomores the first set and all of our freshmen the second set,” said Will, explaining what it meant to be able to get a win on Sophomore Night. “It was cool to see the classes support each other.”
Raiders sweep Bay College in last game of regular season
The Raiders faced off with The Norse in the last game of the season, which ended in another victory. The Raiders won all three of their sets which ended in 25-16, 25-16 and 25-19. In the first set the hitting average was .323 with 13 kills, three errors and 31 attempts.
The second set which ended in a hitting average of .483 and 15 kills just two more than the first set. The error dropped down to one and the attempts dropped to 29. For the last set which was a hitting average of .265, 15 kills, six errors and 34 attempts. Even though the Norse were putting up the fight and were following along, the Raiders still walked away with the win. The Raiders had an overall total of 43 kills with Peterson having the most that evening with 12 and Kik having eight. Only 10 total attempts, and a total of 94 attempts with an overall hitting average of .351. Freshman setter Sami Baker had 11 assists and Carle Bruggema and Ava Tarsi both ended with nine assists. Bruggema also led with the t most aces at two.
With winning all of their games for the month of October it was a happy moment for the The Raiders once the whistle blew just adding on to the winning streak they kept up all season long only losing two games that they quickly bounced back from. Both Freshman Allie McGlothlen and Taylor Kik had comments about Saturday’s game, the overall season and their excitement for the season to come next school year.
“(It) feels good,” said McGlothlen, a right-side hitter. “It’s sad to see all the sophomores leave but it was a fun game. I think traveling with the team was always so fun like you get to bond with your teammates on the bus and stuff and just cheer them on on the court and just have a good time all the time.”
Kik, who is an outside hitter for the Raiders, reflected on Friday’s game and season highlights.
“Yeah, it was a fun day and a fun season getting to know our teammates and sad to see the sophomores go soon,” said Kik.” But it’s been a good season. I would agree (with McGlothlen) especially the Texas trip and traveling and playing with the team has been a lot of fun.”
McGlothlen and Kik then both shared their thoughts about next season with returning players and new ones.
“I think it would be fun, like I hope we go undefeated. It would be amazing to, ” said McGlothen.
“I would agree,” Kik said. “It would be awesome to do the same thing but it would also be fun to have new teammates and meet new people.”
Head coach Chip Will, who is in his 18th year as coach, congratulated his players on their work for the season and what’s more to come.
“I thought today was a pretty good job of playing and finding ways to improve,” Will said. “Everybody always wants to you know improve yourself and that’s important part of any team and better individually is like the one thing that makes this group special. And they just wanna see each other have success and see each other…you know have growth. And it’s really cool to see that teammate mentality that all of them have. You can see that here kinda on the bench cheering for each other when they weren’t in””
The Raiders are moving on to the Michigan Community College Athletic Association (MCCAA) Championship that starts this coming weekend. GRCC is scheduled to play against Mott Community College at 12 p.m. this Saturday in Lansing..
For more information on Raider volleyball, head over to Grccradiers.com.
