The freshman Rangers took a loss to FHN on September 19, losing 2-1 in three sets. The Rangers lost two of their games in a nail-biting event; losing 25-15 in game two and 15-12 in game three.
The previous day, the Rangers lost three games with a quad against Reeths Puffer, Zeeland West, and Grand Haven. They wanted those losses to help fuel them going forward into the game against the Huskies; setter Zoe Jordan commented on that.
“I think as we move into this game it will help motivate us to play better as a team,” Jordan said. “Also, I think this will help build up that fire we lost previously the day before.”
Going into the first set, the Rangers started off slow as they trailed the majority of the first half of the game. The Rangers held onto this lead until the score was 14-11 with the Huskies in front. Middle Addison McConnel delivered a powerful spike that got the Rangers rolling. They scored five straight points, which was followed up by an ace by the Rangers defensive specialist, Caroline Kendall. The Rangers’ lead was never lost for the rest of the set, but it was cut close at one point by being tied. Once it was tied, the Huskies sealed the deal by missing their serve putting the Rangers up by one; it was followed by a shank ball from the Huskies. The Rangers were up 1-0 going into the second set.
Once the second set rolled around, the Rangers started to gain traction. They began leading FHN 4-2, but the lead was eventually lost when the Huskies scored eight straight points; the lead grew to 10-2. Katie Probst noticed communication was struggling.
“I think going forward we need to work on our communication,” Probst said. “We had a bad time talking about who had called the ball. This caused the ball to drop in tough places where we couldn’t end up getting to.”
The communication seemed to get a little better, but they still struggled. The Rangers lost the second set 25-15 causing the match to be tied at 1-1.
The third game was the most intense set of the day. The Huskies started off with a 4-0 lead, but the Rangers clawed back by libero Avery Blanchard serving an ace, putting the Rangers back up one to make the score 7-6. The Rangers climbed a little higher which brought the lead up by three, which caused FHN to use their first timeout of the set. After the timeout, the Rangers struggled to keep the lead; the Huskies tied the score 11-11. The scores kept changing back and forth, as it was tied at 12-12 once again. Those were the last points FHC scored for the day; the Rangers fell short to the Huskies, losing 15-12.
“This loss is going to make us a stronger team,” Jordan said. “I think we’ll remember this loss as something to help us win other games.”
Despite the Rangers losing, they seemed to play extremely well. FHC showcased good passes and great hits that came from sets. They also never gave up even when they were down.
“We had great energy on the bench,” Probst said. “Whenever we got down we didn’t stop fighting.”
After the game, the coach expressed words to the team that this loss was going to be a pivotal building block for the upcoming games. Freshman head coach Morgan Fitch realizes this loss was important.
“I think that this loss gives us a lot of motivation,” Fitch said. “Us being so close and falling short in the end makes us realize that simple mistakes cost us.”
Fitch also told the team about how as the team grows together, the skills and play will become better as a whole, so when FHN comes around next time they won’t see what is coming.
“It’s a fairly new team, people just need to bond and trust each other moving forward,” Fitch said. “Next time we play Northern, we will be ready.”
