by Coach Kim Bodemann
Over the past week, the West Grand Volleyball team picked up three more wins over Caprock, Plateau Valley and Summit, increasing their record to 10-1. The Mustangs have two important league matches this weekend with Meeker and Vail Christian.
Last Thursday, the Caprock Eagles made the trip to town and went home with a loss, as the Mustangs handled them in three sets. In set one, WG played well but let the Eagles hang around some but finished with a 25-18 victory. In the next two sets, the Mustangs dominated the court and had some good runs. In set two, they had two separate runs of 8 behind the serving of Sophomore Maddy Probst and Senior Emma DeSanti, as the set finished 25-9. Senior Mikayla Shearer was serving in set three as the team went on a run 12. These are some very good runs for the Mustangs, not only it is the concentration of the server, but the rest of the team ready to run great defense, leading to some explosive offense, in turn leading to these big runs. 25-11 was the final set score.
For the match, the kills were pretty evenly spread, Sophomore Alex Schake had six, as Shearer, Probst, and Freshman Sage Lechman all registered four, and DeSanti with three. Shearer also added 10 blocks, 11 digs, and seven aces. DeSanti had six assists and four blocks. Lechman had 11 digs as Junior Josy Wheatley added six assists and was 100% at the service line with 11 serves and three aces.
The JV also played strong and pick up a win in two sets, 25-12 and 25-19.
The following day, WG made the trip down to the Plateau Valley Cowboys. Heading into this match the Cowboys had only lost one match. The Mustangs had to be ready to play a solid game and that they did. Set one, WG jumped out to a 10-4 lead increasing it to 20-11 but then let their guard down some and let PV get back in it some but the Mustangs went on to finish 25-20. During the following set, the game would stay close with the lead changing hands a few times throughout. The Mustangs started taking control and forced a time out at 19-16. Following the timeout WG went out, took control, and finished the set with a six-point run, 25-17 victory. The final set was the Mustangs from the first point on, never letting the Cowboys gain any momentum and was victorious, 25-15. Shearer finished with 12 kills, 10 blocks, and 13 digs. DeSanti added 10 kills, 14 digs, and 11 assists, served 14 times and was 100%. Wheatley also served 14 times and was 100% and added 10 assists and digs. Schake added 14 digs, Probst 13, as Lechman had 12.
Finishing with a great victory of their own was the JV team as they finished 25-23 and 25-14.
With the start of Homecoming week, the purple and gold hosted Summit Tigers on Tuesday night. Set one was a back and forth battle as the score was close throughout most of the set. WG did have a good six-point run during Wheatley’s term of service, to go up 20-13 then going on to win 25-19. The Mustangs had the momentum and went into set two having total control and built a nice lead and had a strong 10 point stretch as Schake was serving. Good defense and some big blocks got into the heads of the Tigers. However, the Mustangs lost the momentum and behind some hard serving from Summit the Tigers found themselves right back in the game, as they tied it 22-23. As the lead changed hands four more times WG took the win 28-26. We can not let big leads like this slip away. We need to be able to put it away. The Tigers took the third set 23-25, after some good volleys and several lead changes. The final set was all Mustangs as they registered some more blocks, put some hits down, as well as handled the hard serves from Summit. Final score 25-15.
Schake finished the match with 9 kills and 21 digs. DeSanti, Shearer, and Probst all had 8 kills. Shearer, Schake, DeSanti, and Lechman was all 100% from behind the service line. The team also finished with their highest serve percent of the season at 95.9%. Shearer had 8 blocks, and 25 digs, as DeSanti added five blocks, 20 digs, and 15 assists, and three aces, two which came at the end of the fourth set to end the match. Wheatley finished with four aces, 9 assists, and 10 digs. Probst added 18 digs and Lechman 17.
The C team won their match in two, 25-9 and 25-22 followed by the JV team which unfortunately lost in two, 25-14 and 25-14. The Mustangs will host a huge league matches up on Friday against the Meeker Cowboys at 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. which is also Alumni Night. On Saturday, they will host Vail Christian for their Homecoming game, this will be another league matchup with C team starting at 11:00 a.m. with JV and Varsity to follow at 12:00 and 1:00. Hope to see you in the gym!
