Front row, left to right: Danika, Taylor, Carson, Emmie
Back row, left to right: Dani, Kayla, Jenna, Monica, Meagan, Mariah, Hannah, Emily, Topanga, Lauren, Coach Melissa Smith
We were excited to take the court and show what we had learned as team this week. Our first match was against Cumberland. This was a non-conference match, but we were very excited because we will play Cumberland during conference play later in the season. For the match we had 47 serves and only 4 errors. Kayla Boutwell was our strongest server this game with 15 attempts and 7 aces. Monica Plesums followed with 12 attempts and 3 aces. Monica Plesums and Jenna Curtis were our strong hitters with 7 kills together. Taylor Shutt and Danika McCumber were tough passers this match also. We lost the first game 10-25, but came out hard in game two to win 25-13. In a battle for the third game, we came out winning 15-13 to win the match. The smiles on our faces radiated into the crowd. This first win felt amazing. We definitely needed it as a team.
Next up we played Shell Lake. We couldn't seem to find our groove in the first game and took a hard loss 12-25. Our starting setter got hit in the eye and was out for game two. Hannah Kastner, a freshman stepped up and took the court. She did a phenomenal job filling in. Jenna Curtis, our right hitter, stepped up as a captain too. The team did a great job working together, but still couldn't seem to quite keep up with Shell Lake's hits. We ended up losing game two 12-25 and lost the match to Shell Lake.
Our third match was against Northwood. Coming off a match loss is always hard and it takes getting rid of frustration to shake that off. We tried to battle back in game one but lost 17-25. We got motivated and did a great job placing our passes, serves, and digs. Taylor Shutt, our libero, did an amazing job passing. Jenna Curtis killed 6 out of her 7 hits. Carson Johannes, Jenna Curtis, and Kayla Boutwell did an amazing job serving. We ended up winning game two 25-18. We knew we'd need to come out strong in game three since it was only to 15. Emmie Bassett and Topanga Peterson were hustlers on the court, while Monica Plesums was tough at the net. We won 15-9 to win the match.
Our fourth and final match of the day is always a challenging one. We were tired from the day and knew we would need to rally to win. Unfortunately Frederic came out with a stronger team and although we battled, we couldn't catch up. Frederic won both games, 25-11 and 25-12.
Frederic took 1st place, Shell Lake 2nd, Spooner 3rd, Cumberland 4th, and Northwood 5th. We have things to work on and will take Monday to do just that. Preliminary count shows $992 being raised for Marshall Hutton. Thank you to everyone that came out in support. Also, thank you to our 7th - JV players and parents who donated their time working in the concessions stand and as line judges. We couldn't have made this invite possible without you.
We play our first regular season match at home on Tuesday, September 1st at Spooner High School. C-team and JV will take the court at 5:45 and Varsity at 7:00. We hope everyone will come on out to cheer us on. A lot of great things are happening with Spooner Volleyball this year.
You can find pictures from the Spooner Invite, by clicking here. Pictures were taken by Opal Warren and Morgan Taylor.
