Jeremy Ratliff
Editor
The Bluejay girls varsity volleyball squad has been on a bit of a hot streak lately.
Although the season is still young yet, the ladies have spared little expense on their opponents to date. Even when the team was stricken with a brief injury bug back at the UW-Whitewater Open earlier this month, the Jays still rebounded from a rocky start on Friday, Aug.30 to claim their divsion championship on Saturday, Aug. 31. Not much has changed since in their on-the-court prowess, and that was quite evident last Thursday, Sep.12 when the ladies welcomed D.C Everest to the MHS Field House in their 2019 conference opener.
The Evergreens came out standing tall with a bit of a power surge, slipping past the Jays 25-23. But the Bluejays quickly found their footing and fired right back with a 25-18 second set. Their momentum would only build from there as the ladies capitalized with a decisive 25-16 third-set and brought the ‘greens down for the count, 25-21 in the final set.
“We came out tight,” comments varsity assistant coach Kasie Holt.
“I never felt like we really got into a rhythm. Our serving was a highlight for us as we were serving aggressively, that is where we were getting most of our runs. Our offense needs to develop so that somebody can terminate the ball. I think that tonight our nerves got the best of us, nobody wanted to make a mistake.”
As coach Holt alluded to, the Jays found plenty of success from their backcourt attack as senior Ellie Hartson led the way with 5 serving aces, followed by senior Reese Mracheck with 4 and junior Kelly Page with a pair of her own. The Jays offensive firepower proved two-fold; wracking up 36 total kills on the night. Mracheck spearheaded the offensive effort with 9 kills, Eve Akey, Jourdyn Heinrich and Kelly Page tied with six, followed by Ellie Hartson with 5, respectively.
Defensively, Hartson came up big from her setter position to pput up 20 digs on the night, followed by Libero Rachel Travis (18) and Page (12), respectively.
Next on the ‘Jays to-do list will be a road trip to Wausau-West. The Warriors are still in the hunt for their first WVC win of the season, after a 3-0 shutout at the hands of defending conference champion SPASH last Thursday. Thursday’s meet time is set for 7 p.m. at the Wausau-West High School Field House.