MUSKEGON — Montague bounced back well from its disappointing showing in the West Michigan Conference Lakes tournament by sweeping both of its matches Monday at the Reeths-Puffer Tri.
The Wildcats downed Grand River Prep, 25-5, 25-6, 25-8, and beat back solid Rocket efforts in two of the three games of their second match to win 25-21, 25-10, 25-21.
Montague coach Gretchen Schneider said her team "lost track of the fun" of playing volleyball at the WMC Lakes tournament, where it had to settle for a fifth-place finish, and the 'Cats focused on bringing that back Monday.
"We pulled it back together," Schneider said. "We're going to do
a lot of our work this week in practice team-building again. We've
worked hard all year long on team-building and just trusting each
other. That's what we need to do. We're going to do a lot of mental
work."
The 'Cats never sweated against an outmanned Grand River Prep squad, but Reeths-Puffer provided a different test. Montague fell behind early in game one before storming back to take a 14-7 lead and forcing a R-P timeout. The Rockets hung around and got as close as three points down the stretch before the 'Cats finished things up.
After an easy game two win, game three played out similarly, with the Rockets going ahead 9-4 before Montague came back to take the lead soon after.
Schneider credited her seniors for efficient play; the Wildcats got 16 kills from Maizie Collins on the night and also involved their middle hitters in the matches. Reagan Cederquist and Ava Pumford combined for 19 kills.
"We have really strong middles," Schneider said. "They do a very good job of
reading the defense, finding the holes and hitting. I just credit that
to the eyes on the court. We have senior leadership
out there and they do a really good job watching the opponent all
throughout the game and just understanding where that ball needs to go."
Jaelyn Sundberg had 48 assists and illustrated some of that heady play late in the final game, taking advantage of a discombobulated R-P defense to fire an attack over herself for a kill. She also tied the team lead with six aces; Jordan Netcott also had six aces. Netcott was, as usual, the Wildcats' defensive leader with 35 digs.
The matches were Montague's last before districts; the 'Cats will no longer compete at a planned Thursday meet at Calvin Christian. Montague earned the No. 2 seed in the district tournament, but their road is by no means easy. Its first district opponent will be either Spring Lake - which has taken Fremont to five games and beaten Ludington - or Oakridge, which just beat the Wildcats in the conference tourney. And Fruitport looms as the No. 1 seed on the other side of the bracket. However, Monday provided renewed optimism things will go well.
"I've been thrilled this
whole entire season with what I've seen, and the progress that these
girls have made," Schneider said. "As a first-year coach at Montague, I'm
happy. I'm very proud...I'm hoping to go out
on top."
Reeths-Puffer's Alissa Klopp fires the ball at Montague players Jaelyn Sundberg (1) and Ava Pumford during Monday's R-P Tri. The Rockets split their two matches.
Reeths-Puffer started very slowly, losing game one to Grand River Prep before rallying to win the final three games. The Rockets then had to wait for the Titans to play Montague before tangling with the Wildcats themselves.
Coach Justin Birr said the team continues to handle tough circumstances well. Injured outside hitter Mady Snyder is working her way back - she played a little against Grand River Prep - but the Rockets are still dealing with a rearranged lineup.
"We moved one of our middles (Makayla Disselkoen) to the outside," Birr said. "Makayla did well, but it's a lot to throw on a junior
for sure."
As much as anything else, Birr said he was pleased to have his team in matches where it can compete. The brutal nature of the O-K Green Conference - four of R-P's five league opponnts have been ranked or honorable mention in Division 1 all year - has prevented the Rockets from getting into many close-and-late scenarios.
"I'm
glad we have nights like tonight," Birr said. "We still lost to Montague, but (we can) play against a team and compete and get to 25-20 a couple different times. Our girls deserve that. This group of seniors, to go from the conference we were in last year to this year's conference, I
think we would probably be third in our conference from last year, and right now, we're (fifth) of six. It's just a beast of a conference."
The Rockets are slated to face one of the teams from that conference, rival Mona Shores, in their first district match. They'll at least have the advantage of familiarity, having already seen the Sailors a few times.
"We can focus
specifically on how to game plan to beat a team like that," Birr said. "They're
obviously very big, very disciplined and have lots of options
swinging, but I think even tonight, we learned some things about our
blocking scheme that we can improve on and that did get better."
Madilynn Dyer had 49 assists and Alissa Klopp had 17 kills for the night. Chloe Brainard served 10 aces and Carlee Bowen had 15 digs.
