On Sept. 15, the girls volleyball team lost to Howell High in their fifth set of the game. As of this year, teams now play best of five sets instead of three. This new rule provides a more accurate result of which team outplayed the other, but has been rather extraneous on the players. Senior Gwendolyn Raziq feels this new level of play may prepare them for the next level.

“It’s supposed to get us ready for college level play,” Raziq said. “It makes our players get worn out much faster.”

Adjusting to this new rule takes time and endurance, which might have been a struggle they encountered in their game against Howell. Senior Kennedy Lamb feels this loss was especially had because it went through all five sets.

“We went to five sets with Howell and played very hard,” Lamb said. “We unfortunately lost, but we definitely will have them next game.”

Senior Emma Hultz thinks the biggest struggle was the team’s numerous “silly mistakes.”

“I think we struggled the most with keeping a lead once we got one. We would score a lot of points and then lose them to silly mistakes,” Hultz said. “Altogether we played really well and any mistakes that we did make, we were able to come back and fix them in the later sets.”

Although the girls lost this match, they seemed to have some memorable moments that made this game productive and worthwhile. The team has practiced defensive blocks for several practices now and was able to see them executed during gameplay.

“To see our practices paying off during the Howell game is amazing,” Hultz said. “Any blocks that we got against Howell were automatically my favorite plays, especially because of how hyped everyone on the bench and on the court would get.”

Even with limited spectator policies due to COVID-19, the stands still managed to be filled with enthusiastic parents and students, even through a loss.

This loss didn’t set the team back. They went to practice the next day, hard at work, to prepare for their next game against Holt, which took place on Sept. 17. Prior to the game, Hultz explained what she thought might come out of this match.

“I’m expecting them to go for every ball like it’s game point,” Hultz said. “We know they have some good servers, so just making sure we’re focused every time they go back to serve will definitely help us get the ball back and go on a serving run.”

The girls fought for their win, 2-1, and recovered from their previous loss. Their next league game match up is against Fort Zumwalt West on Sept. 29. This home game will start at 5:30pm for the varsity girls and will be their twelfth match of the season. 

Stay in touch by following Scott Harris on twitter for play-by-play updates.