The preliminaries are nearly over, and despite some ups and downs over the first month of the season, Reeths-Puffer volleyball coach Justin Birr thinks his team is ready to make a run for some trophies.
The Rockets, now 6-6-2 overall on the season, improved their O-K Green conference record to 2-0 on Tuesday with an easy straight-set victory over Grand Rapids Union.
The set scores were 25-9, 25-18, 25-7.
R-P has one more conference match that is expected to go well – on Thursday in Wyoming – before the league schedule starts getting more difficult with a home match against Zeeland East next Tuesday.
R-P's Madisyn Dykema leaps to make a shot against GR Union. Photo/Joe Lane
Birr said his team made some significant progress on Saturday at the Caledonia Invitational, despite the fact that the Rockets posted a 1-3 record on the day against some tough competition.
“On Saturday we finally figured out our starting rotation, so by the end of the day we felt better about our game,” Birr said. “Now we’ll play Wyoming on Thursday, then we’ll have to go through the gauntlet over the next two weeks.
“We have big potential. We had a team meeting yesterday, looked back at the goals we set, and we are still looking to compete to win our conference, win our district and win the city tournament. We still have some work to do, but this team knows what it takes to win. These seniors know what success looks like and how to get there.”
The Rockets had little trouble finding success on Tuesday against Union, one of the weaker teams in the O-K Green.
Alissa Klopp pounds home a kill for Reeths-Puffer.
They used their power game and some great serving to keep the Red Hawks from posing a serious challenge.
Madisyn Dykema had six kills in the first set while the Rockets served up four aces en route to the 25-9 win.
R-P servers had seven aces in the second set, which they won 25-18. Allison McManus had a four-point service run that included three aces while Emme Buzzell also had a four-point service run that included three aces in a row.
Buzzell opened up the third set with eight straight service points, including four aces in a row. Sophia Hekkema pounded home three kills down the stretch, helping the Rockets put the match away with a 25-7 win.
Reeths-Puffer's Natalie Kunnen serves.
R-P also had a few weaker moments, particularly in the second set when it built leads of 15-8 and 19-11 but failed to return four Union serves and allowed the Red Hawks to pull within 21-17 before finishing things off.
Birr said some of the defensive errors came because all 12 players on the roster got in the match, and some were playing in unfamiliar positions, but he also acknowledged that the defense needs to polish up.
“Defensively we have some things to straighten out,” he said. “We set some goals for practice this week.”
Dykema finished with 10 kills while Hekkema had eight and sophomore Alissa Klopp, who was just called up from the junior varsity, added five.
Defensively, Sophia Corradin had five digs.