By Shy’Ana Thomas
The Grand Rapids Community College women’s volleyball team ended its 25-game winning streak with a two-game loss in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II tournament. This tournament ended in a 1-2 result for the Raiders against Heartland Community College, Walters State Community College and Kirkwood Community College. The Raider ended this season ranking at No. 12 nationally.
Just before the NJCAA tournament, the Raiders were coming from a championship win in the Michigan Community College Athletic Association championship. With the Raiders 20-2 in one match and 23-6 in the other. More information on that will be here.
GRCC was defeated by Heartland
The Raiders came short of a win against the Hawks in the tournament’s first game on Nov. 20 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, losing all their sets, 19-25, 15-25 and 14-25. The Raiders came in with a .188% hitting average, 10 kills, 10 errors and 36 attempts.
During this match, the Raiders couldn’t catch up, leaving with 32 points, 23 kills, three aces, six blocks and 23 assists. The most kills were from freshman outside hitter Taylor Kik coming in with eight for the Raiders. Freshman setter Ava Tarsi had the most assists for the Raiders with a total of nine.
GRCC takes win against Walters State College
The Raiders walked away with their first tournament victory on Nov. 21, winning three out of four sets, 25-12, 25-19, and 25-21 only losing one set 20-25 to Walters State. Their biggest victory was set one with a sweep of 25-12, with the Raiders coming in with a .484 hitting average, 17 kills, only two errors and 31 attempts.
Set two was the only set the Raiders faced defeat in this match. Set two ended 20-25 with the Raiders having a .137 hitting average just .41 less than Walters State in that second set. The Raiders had 13 kills, six errors, and 51 attempts. Only being five points off the opponent. Kik carried the leaderboard again for the most kills in the game with a total of 17. Tarsi came again with a staggering total of 26 assists. The Raiders ended this game with a 77-point lead, 57 total kills, 14 blocks, 51 assists and 83 digs.
GRCC swept by Kirkwood
After having their first win of the tournament the day before, the Raiders came short of another victory against the Eagles on Nov. 22 in their last game, losing three out of their four sets, 22-25, 20-25, 25-23 and 23-25. The Raiders pulled out a win on the third set with a .189 % hitting average, 11 kills, four errors and 37 attempts.
But during the last set, the Raiders came short of a repeat victory. GRCC had just a -.022 hitting average, 10 kills, 11 errors and 46 attempts. Once again, Kik and Tarsi took the lead for most kills and assists of the game with 12 kills and 19 assists, respectively. Following up with sophomore middle blocker Lillian Peterson with 11 kills and sophomore setter Carle Bruggema with 16 assists. Overall for this game, the Raiders ended with 58 points, 42 kills, four aces, 36 total assists and 76 digs.
Even though the Raiders didn’t walk away with a tournament victory, they still put up a fight and ranked among the top teams in the nation.
To round out the season, Kik was named the Conference Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year as she led the Raiders in kills all season long, and had the second most amount of digs. Peterson and sophomore Lizzie MacIntosh, along with Kik, were named First Team All-Conference, All-MCCAA, and All-Region. Additionally, freshman Tarsi and sophomore Carle Bruggema were named Second Team All-Conference. Tarsi was also named to the conference’s All-Freshman Team. Freshman CeCe Huizingh and sophomores Meredith Simmons and Ava Schultz all received All-Conference honorable mentions.
