News

By Ryan Schlehuber, MCC Sportswriter

Playing its seventh team in 14 days, the Montcalm Community College Centurions women’s volleyball team has quickly jumped into its conference play, with the latest being a tilt against nationally-ranked Grand Rapids Community College, Wednesday, Sept. 17. 

The host Raiders (2-0 MCCAA Northern, 5-2 overall) are ranked 12th in the nation among Division II junior college teams and they showed it against the Centurions (0-2 MCCAA Northern, 3-10 overall), outdueling them in three sets, winning 25-8, 25-13 and 25-15.  

Centurions Head Coach Kara Youngs said her team got off to a rough start, failing to get their offensive system going early. 

“In the first set, our passing to receive was not very strong and that made us play out of system,” Youngs said. “GRCC got strong with the in-system opportunities we allowed them to have.” 

Youngs said Grand Rapids’ efficiency in passing and attacking were impressive, which MCC struggled to overcome. 

“They have a good setter that moves the ball around and two left-handed right-side hitters, one being one of the top hitters in the league,” she said. “Their efficiency was really good both in the front and back row.” 

In an effort to counter Grand Rapids’ dominance at the net, Youngs moved sophomore Katelyn Bignall (Belding, Mich.) from the right side into the middle up front to give the Centurions a better defensive presence, which Youngs was impressed with Bignall’s play. 

“I thought she did a really good job,” Youngs said. “She did well making the adjustments.” 

Playing middle was familiar to Bignall, as she had played the position throughout her volleyball career before coming to MCC. 

“I think that changing back to middle made me a little nervous, but I was excited to be back there, too,” Bignall said. “I think I had to make sure that I was there for blocking and to be able to run different plays.” 

Despite the change in strategy, MCC still struggled offensively in the next two sets, however, things gradually improved. 

“I told my girls we can’t be giving them in-system opportunities,” Youngs said. “We focused on passing a little better and each game we got better. Overall, though, it’s not how we wanted to play.” 

The Centurions came into September hitting well and, statistically speaking, had been one of the better teams in the state in several areas, including overall digs (fourth), digs per set (fourth in state, 54th nationally), service aces per set (fourth in state, 37th nationally), and overall aces (fifth in state). Youngs is hoping to get her team back on track in its next couple games. 

One area the Centurions will work on for tonight’s game at Great Lakes Christian College (Lansing, Mich.) is communication, according to Youngs. 

“We stopped communicating against GR, which is why things didn’t go very well,” she said. “We talked about when things don’t go well, we have to communicate more and not do the opposite.” 

Bignall agreed, stating it will be important to reestablish a strong line of communication if the Centurions want to snap its two-game losing streak. 

“I would say that something we could do better for tonight’s game and following game would be that we should talk more and make sure that we keep up our spirits throughout the game,” said Bignall, who led the team with five kills, three blocks and a 0.231 hitting percentage.  

Freshman Ella Bishop (Grand Rapids, Mich.) and sophomore Jordan Dompreh (Flint, Mich.) led the team in assists with seven and six, respectively. Sophomore libero Jaden Gomez (White Cloud, Mich.) led the team in digs with eight, followed by Bishop and freshman Erin Borek (Grand Rapids, Mich), each with five. 

Tonight’s game at GLCC starts at 6:30 p.m. 

UP NEXT: After tonight’s game, the Centurions will prepare for a home match against Northern Conference foe Alpena Community College (0-1 MCCAA Northern, 1-5 overall) at 6:30 p.m., Monday, Sept. 22. Game time is 6:30 p.m. The game will also be Adopt-A-Family Night.