By Greg Gielczyk
GRAYLING – Early results would seem to indicate that the Grayling girls volleyball team is making better than decent progress. On Thursday, Sept. 8 the Vikings split a tri meet losing to McBain, 16-25, 25-22, 10-15 while defeating Kalkaska, 25-20, 25-20 which improved their Lake Michigan Conference record to 5-2.
Mallory Hatfield paced the attack for Grayling with 13 assists, four aces and three kills. Cortney Hickman finished with six kills, three digs and two aces. Emma Prosser contributed 10 kills and six digs. Nicole Opperman had 10 assists and one ace while Natalie Amy had 11 digs.
‘We struggled a little bit in our game with McBain,’ Vikings head coach Tim Vigila said, ‘getting used to different referee styles. It was a challenge, so we were a little sloppy in some of our rotation. We need to work on some ball handling.
‘I think we overcame them pretty well. I think we gave McBain a couple of decent games. We’d seen them earlier in a tournament at Roscommon and we didn’t play really, really well. I thought we were far more competitive in this one. I think we’re progressing pretty nicely. The girls are playing well. We’re still gelling as a team a little bit. I have a freshman setter and a sophomore right side hitter.
‘They’re getting ramped up to playing at a little more competitive level. I have five or six real strong senior leaders so we have a real nice balance of leadership to help those young girls come along.’
After opening the season with a 2-1 record in the Lake Michigan Conference the Grayling girls volleyball team followed it up with another pair of conference wins in a home meet on Monday, Sept. 5 involving three other teams.
Facing the Charlevoix Rayders in the first match of the night proved to be a stern test for the Vikings, who took a 2-0 lead (25-19, 25-14) before losing the third set to the Rayders (14-25) to force a fourth set. Grayling prevailed in the fourth set, 25-16 for a 3-1 win.
The next matches were even tougher as the Vikings were pressed to the limit in needing five sets to decide the issue. East Jordan would take a 2-1 lead against the Vikings. The fourth game went to Grayling, 25-17 and forced a fifth game to 15 points which the Vikings won, 15-6 and a 3-2 victory.
But the Vikings string finally ended in their third match of the night when Kalkaska turned them back in five games. The Vikings lost the deciding fifth game, 13-15.
