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Despite Owens Community College spoiling its home opener Friday, Sept. 18, the Montcalm Community College Centurions women’s volleyball team is seeing progress and is close to getting to where it wants to be as midseason approaches.
The Express (12-3 overall) won 25-19, 25-21 and 25-20 over the Centurions (0-2 MCCAA Northern, 1-9 overall). Each set held a story of its own.
In the first set, the Centurions hurt themselves with self-inflicted mistakes. Tied at 10-10, the Express went on a 6-2 run after a few consecutive rotation errors by MCC. The Centurions got it back to within three but again had a string of bad plays that gave OCC the opportunity to establish a 20-16 lead. The Centurions could not get any closer.
“We were trying to get into more of a groove in our offense and better communication,” Centurions head coach Kara Youngs said. “We started a little bit slower than we wanted to. But when they figure it out, they go, they click and it’s great.”
That “click” showed in the second set. At first, it looked like the Express were going to cruise to another win after leading 23-13. However, Youngs’ team showed its no-quit attitude and went on an 8-1 run to cut OCC’s lead to 24-21. Unfortunately, a net violation stalled the comeback and gave the Express the win.
“It’s tough when you have that good run and the momentum just ends. But we brought it in strong for that third set,” Youngs said. “We got a 7-0 run, but there were just a couple errors that started to happen, and we lost a bit of momentum from that. We had a great run.”
MCC freshman outside hitter Ayanna Sanders, who finished with nine kills and five digs, said her team had great energy for its first home game. However, that energy seemed to disappear throughout the sets against Owens.
“I feel like we brought that fighting energy, but I feel like it would drop sometimes,” Sanders said. “If we can keep up that energy, I feel we can stay aggressive with our hits and play good defense.”
Youngs agreed.
“We had a great run to start and then it kind of got choppy, where they’re getting three and we’re only getting two,” she said. “So our runs kind of stopped and their offense started to pick up.”
In the third and final set, MCC took an early 6-4 lead when sophomore middle blocker Edy Davidson (Carson City, Mich.) slammed the ball into an open spot on OCC’s side of the net. MCC took a 10-7 lead after a lift call by OCC’s Kilee Kidd.
MCC added another point when freshmen outside hitter Aubrie Uebele (Greenville, Mich.) took a shot at the net that deflected off an Express blocker and went out of bounds, which forced the Express to take a timeout.
OCC came back and took a 17-15 lead after MCC couldn’t receive an Owens serve, hitting the ball out of bounds on the second hit. OCC went on a 7-2 run from there. The Centurions managed to pull within four points before the Express’ Tatum Baumgartner tipped a ball over two Centurions blockers and landed it on MCC’s side of the court, ending the match.
Despite not being able to earn a set win, Youngs saw a lot of positive things from her young team, which includes nine freshmen.
“The big thing is, when you’re losing so close constantly, it’s a little frustrating, but I have all the confidence they’re going to figure it out. We’ve had good battles the last couple times we’ve played. It’s a learning lesson,” Youngs said. “Sometimes you can learn more when you lose like this. I know we’re strong contenders, so it’s just a matter of finding a way to win now. That is going to be our next step. We’re right there. Now we just have to finish and win.”
Sanders has proven to be one of the Centurions most dominate players. However, she was forced to sit out of MCC’s last road game against Delta (Sept. 16) due to an injury. Sanders was questionable to play against OCC but got the green light from the trainer only 15 minutes before game time.
“I didn’t feel anything at all,” Sanders said.
Sanders knows her team is close to turning close losses to close wins, stating that her team fought hard as usual, but it needs to keep up its momentum.
“I feel like the big thing for us was that we really fought. Erin (Borek) got a lot of balls up for us and we got a lot of blocks. But I think we needed to be more consistent with our hits,” Sanders said. “We have really strong hitters, but we just need to be more consistent.”
Borek (Comstock Park, Mich.) led the team with 14 digs and three service aces. Uebele had a team-leading 12 kills. Davidson finished with a team-high five blocks.
Sanders said finally being able to play at home after almost two months of being on the road to start the season was a relief, more than anything.
“It feels nice to be home,” she said. “It was hard going against the other student sections. But it was nice being home. Being able to get a good kill and looking at our student section and feeding off their excitement, that was great. Having everyone cheer for us, that was really nice.”
UP NEXT: The Centurions will enjoy another home game tonight against Alpena Community College (0-2 MCCAA Northern, 2-8 overall). Game time is 6:30 p.m.