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Vikings spikers go 1-2 in home quad


GRAYLING — After a typically slow start in the morning, things did improve throughout the rest of the day Saturday when the Grayling volleyball team hosted a quadrangular meet. But the Vikings finished 1-2 for the day.

“I thought we just kind of came out flat, which unfortunately has been our operating mode at least all the years that I’ve coached,” Grayling volleyball coach Tim Zigila said. “We’ve struggled to get out of the box in the morning. So, that was a little tough for us.”Maybe we’re just not morning people. It just seems like we don’t really get up and get after it. Hopefully, we can change that.”

The Vikings began the day with a 2-1 loss to Mancelona of the Ski Valley Conference, 14-25, 25-21 and 13-15. Grayling defeated Johannesburg-Lewiston, also from the SVC, 2-1 in the middle set, 25-18, 21-25 and 15-13. But the Vikings lost the final match to Clare, 2-0 by scores of 18-25 and 22-25.

Individual leaders for the Vikings included Makayleigh Laskowski with five aces, Kynadi Dole with eight kills, Ellie Wagner with 30 digs and Alison Brown with 25 assists.Zigila felt that the Johannesburg match was a good one for the Vikings.

“We came out pretty motivated,” the coach said. “For whatever reason Joburg motivates us. So that was a good win. The girls got fired up, so that was pretty exciting.”I didn’t think we played awful against Clare. I don’t know if we had a little letdown from our win against Joburg. We didn’t play awful with them, but we just didn’t finish.

“At one point I think we were down 1-10 and we ended up losing 22-25. We had some pretty good pushback, but just weren’t able to finish. I felt we could have played better against Mancelona. We played to our potential, or a little bit better, against Joburg. I thought we were pretty evenly matched against Clare, and we’re going to see them later on in the season, so it just be pretty decent.”Zigila said the Vikings serving got better on Saturday. But their consistency has really shown up in their passing, and their serve receive has been good.”We need to improve our execution on our attack,” Zigila added.


“We have a couple of kids who are new to varsity, and we’re still trying to get them used to playing at that level.”Leadership has come from a couple of different places, Zigila said, but particularly from seniors Ellie Wagner and Brown who have stepepd up and handled their positions real well.Wagner is in her fourth year as the Vikings’ libero, and Brown is in her second year setting for the team. Their experience has been a steadying influence on the rest of the girls.

Even though she’s only a sophomore, Dole has been solid for the Vikings as a leader in the middle with her blocking abilities. She hits the ball real well. Kenzie Castle is an all-around athlete and has a real “gamer” mentality, Zigila said.”Makayleigh Laskowski had a super run of serves for us, and she’s been steadily improving and gaining in her confidence,” Zigila said.

“So we’re kind of leaning on her a little bit more to play the back row and she’s embraced that role.”That’s the type of kid she is. She’s out there to do whatever she can do to help the team. She was super for us on Saturday.”Grayling has a tri-meet Tuesday with Oscoda and Reed City in Grayling. 

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