On Thursday, the JV girls volleyball team battled it out against the Grand Rapids Christian Eagles. The girls were coming off a dominant win over Greenville, and they were looking to keep their momentum going and rack up two straight wins.  Some goals were set prior to the game, one of which was to communicate better than the past games.

“The strategy was for us to get Grand Rapids Christian out of the system and make mistakes,” head coach Kendra Zwart said.

To start the game off, the ladies got hyped up and were ready to go. The first serve was started by the Rangers. It led to a long rally until Central made a minuscule mistake that gave the Eagles the point. The first set was all back and forth up until the score read 13-13. The Eagles pulled away just a tad, making it 23-19. In a crucial moment of the game, sophomore Tz Cumbo Nacheli made an amazing block right at the net and gave Central a little motivation. Although the girls were not able to win the set, they were still positive and gave it all they had.

Heading into the second set, the team knew that it had to win or it was all over. Coach Zwart led the huddle and made adjustments to the game plan. The players were very amped up and ready to go. Once again, they started off very solid by making some really nice passes, allowing the setters to set the servers up for success. Once it got to the middle of the set, though, they fell apart yet again. The Rangers had some nice defensive plays here and there, but it was not enough to stay close to the Eagles. Grand Rapids Christian wound up winning the set the whole game two sets to none at home.

Overall, the girls didn’t like the loss but it certainly did not tear them apart. They are looking to grow from their mistakes and to continue having fun. One big issue throughout the duration of the game was inconsistent passing; it made it much harder for the setters to have well-placed sets.

“I think we could improve our coverage and communication,” sophomore Maggie Sneider said. Communication has been one of the aspects the team has been focusing on, as it is a reoccurring problem in its play.

On the positive side, the girls had much better serve receptions, which was one of their main issues in past games. Sophomore Bella Grounin had nice shots on the right side, and Tz made some spectacular diving saves.

“We adjusted to the unfortunate loss of two teammates extremely well and came super close to winning, even with that disadvantage,” Tz Cumbo Nacheli said.

The team’s next games are on Saturday at 9:00 AM at the West Ottawa JV Invite. The volleyball team is looking to show improvement and make solid plays. Coach Zwart is also looking forwards to getting more wins and watching her players have strong hits over the net.