by Mari Radtke
“The scores were not indicative to the efforts of our girls in this first match of the season. We had some missed serves and a few unforced errors which didn’t help our cause; however, I felt that it was a good first match for us,” said Head Coach Amy Schmidt. “We played well together and found that what we need to continue to work on are the areas of our focus from this summer. We sat out a match after playing Algona.”

The Wolverines opened their season at Spencer playing in their Earlybird Tournament. The first faced the Algona Bulldogs. Greta Hustedt served 6 out of 6 into play, also getting 9 assists for the Wolverine effort. Taylor Wulf placed 5 of 6 into play with an ace. Reese Farquhar also scored an ace in her 4 out of 5 good serves and is credited with a solo block.

Raegan Plagge hit 7 out of 9 attacks with 3 kills. Chloe Hustedt also scored on 3 kills from 4 out of 5 attacks. Cassidy Horstmann led digs with 8 while Addi Hedberg kept 4 alive.

The Wolverines battled the Bulldogs but came up short. Game 1 went to the Bulldogs 11-21. Game to was better fought by the Wolverines, 17-21.

“As our girls played our second match against Spencer, we fell behind but fought back hard only to come up short. The girls remained focused and believed in themselves and each other that they could come back and win the next two sets,” said Schmidt.

Spencer Tigers, a 3A team, was a 3-game battle. SOS fell in the first game 18-21 but came back in the next game and claiming the win, 21-14. The grit and determination of the Wolverines gave them a match win against Spencer with a 15-10 win to take the match, 2 games to 1.

Greta scored on 2 aces with a 10/11 serve performance. She assisted her teammates 9 times. Chloe served an ace and put 8 of her 11 serves into play. Avery Halverson also scored an ace from 7 out of 8 good serves.

Raegan attacked 17 times making 13 count and 8 were kills. Chloe scored 4 kills from 9 out of 13 attacks. Sixteen digs were split evenly between Cassidy and Avery. Tori Schueller earned 2 solo blocks. Reese and Taylor Farquhar shared a block.

Coach Schmidt said, “Our serve reception is improving and I felt that Greta did a great job in the setting area. It’s a bit of a change hitting off of a new setter but she is filling the position quite well. Our hitters are improving on timing as well as communicating much better with her. Avery Halverson did a great job in the back row. Her confidence is improving and she brings a great deal of positivity to our team. Chloe and Raegan are hitting better than they have been and were fun to watch in the match against Spencer.

Coach Schmidt talked about the final match of the tourney. She said, “The third match was against Manson NW. Coach Rehder and I felt that our girls gave a great effort in ball pursuit. We were out of system a bit, but our girls never gave up on plays and managed to keep us battling. Greta, Chloe & Reese had a pretty decent tournament serving and we will look to them to be leaders for us in all areas. Raegan started to really show her abilities offensively and put on a show on the net. I was pleased with our Libero, Cassidy Horstmann and the other two DSs. Our girls had a really good outing and we look forward to playing a triangular with Westwood/MVAOCOU Thursday at Westwood.”

The Wolverines faced Manson-Northwest Webster Cougars. The Cougars took the match in 2 games, 21-18 and 21-15. Greta Hustedt served 2 aces and placed 10 out of 11 into play. Chloe Hustedt also scored on 2 aces placing 7 serves out of 8 into play. She also scored 3 kills from 8 out of 10 attacks. Reese put up 3 aces out of 5 playable serves. Raegan scored 3 kills from 5 out of 6 attacks. Avery kept the ball alive with 5 digs while Chloe, Greta and Cassidy each did the same with 4 digs. Reese and Taylor assisted with a block.