All three local squads took the court Saturday in the Fruitport
Invitational, and it was a tough day for each. Reeths-Puffer and
Montague each had 1-2 records at the event, and Whitehall went 0-4.
It
was an even rougher day for the Rockets than the other two teams, as
setter Grace Darke suffered a broken collarbone in the team's final
match of the day. The injury will sideline her for up to six weeks -
most of the remainder of the season. In addition to the emotions
involved with losing a teammate to injury, R-P will have to make lineup
adjustments without Darke, going back to a traditional one-setter lineup
with Madilynn Dyer rather than the two-setter formation it was
employing.
"Grace's injury will be a big loss for our team," R-P coach Justin Birr said. "We were just growing
comfortable running a 6-2 and starting to learn how to play together, so
transitioning back to a 5-1...will be something we
need to work on in practice."
The Rockets (5-5) beat
Whitehall 25-15, 25-22 in the only intra-area match of the day, then
took defeats to Gull Lake and Coopersville. Dyer notched 24 assists.
Mairyn Peterson, Mady Snyder and Alissa Klopp each had eight kills.
Montague
opened the day with a close win over NorthPointe Christian, 28-26,
25-20, and lost to Mona Shores and Fruitport, moving to 6-5-2 on the
season. Jordan Netcott racked up 50 digs on defense, and Maizie Collins
led the offense with 13 kills and 16 service points. Jaelyn Sundberg had
26 assists.
Whitehall lost matches to North Muskegon,
NorthPointe Christian and Gull Lake in addition to the Rockets, dropping
to 5-7 on the season. Sidney Shepherd notched 40 assists, and Aaliyah
Jamison had 25 digs with Megan LeaTrea chipping in 21. Bella Fogus led
the offense with 13 kills.
