TRAVERSE CITY — Making its first road trip of the season amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Grayling girls volleyball team finished on the short end of the score against Traverse City St. Francis, Traverse City Central and Pine River in a tri meet at Traverse City on Friday night.
Grayling started the night off with a match against Traverse City Central and lost in straight sets, 16-25, 10-25 and 18-25.
Ellie Wagner led the way on defense for the Vikings with seven digs, Kenzie Castle registered two aces from the service line, Allyson Brown contributed six assists from the setting position and Kynadi Dole pounded down three kills from the attack line.
“We played (Thursday) in Charlevoix (lost, no details available) and then gettng on the bus today, I thought we played pretty well,” Grayling coach Tim Zigila said.
“Traverse City Central has Emma Turnquist, and she’s just a killer. She’s going to get hers, and you just have to kind of mitigate the pain. She’s just a tough player.
“I thought we were okay agains them. They served super aggressive, more aggressive than we’ve seen this year and that was a little tough to handle.”
In their second match of the night the Vikings took on St. Francis, and again lost in three, 22-25, 27-29 and 15-25.
Makayleigh Laskowski recorded two service aces to lead the Vikings. Paige Clark had seven kills, Wagner contributed nine digs in an impressive defensive game and Brown added five assists.
“For a non-league match with a league opponent, I thought we played well,” Zigila said. “That last game we didn’t play well, losing by 10 points, but I think for our girls were just a little emotionally spent, going extra points with them.
“We did some good things in that, and I was super proud of the girls’ effort. By the time we hit Pine River, I think we were out of gas. It would have been nice to get one win out of the three, but I am still pleased with how we’re playing.”
The Vikings managed to pick up a set win against the Pine River Bucks in their final match of the night, but still wound up on the losing end of the ledger, 2-1.
Grayling lost the first two sets, 21-25 and 24-26 before finally cracking the win column in the third set, 25-19.
Leading the Vikings were Brown with four aces, Clark found the open spaces in the Bucks’ defense for seven kills at the attack line and Brown added 10 assists.
“It’s a long season, and we just have little things to work on,” Zigila said. “But, I thought we played our best two matches against St. Francis and Pine River. TC Central we were overmatched.”
Next on the schedule for the Vikings is a Lake Michigan Conference dual at Boyne City on Tuesday.
