Lady Jays Volleyball
Pierce Finishes the Regular Season with a Win
By Lydia Cone
The Pierce volleyball team finished their regular season strong with a sweep of the Elkhorn Valley Falcons on senior night.
“That was an incredible environment to have on our senior night. Huge thank you to all the fans and students who attended and gave our girls the opportunity to play in a loud, packed gym. Also, I’m very proud of our team for this game and for the entire regular season,” head coach Zach Weber said.
The set scores consisted of 25-22, 25-19, and 25-18.
Nora Herian led the team in kills with 20, followed by Kyndal Werner with six, Lydia Cone with five, Kayton Werner with three, and Adrienne Riggert and Alayna Herian with one each.
Lydia Cone led the team in blocks with three, followed by Riggert and Herian with one each.
Josie Painter led the team in digs with 15, followed by N. Herian with 12, Ky. Werner with nine, and Kenzi Nygren with seven.
Riggert tallied five digs, and Ka. Werner had two.
“This was obviously a big get-back game. That pushed us to be super confident out on the court and fly around. The win really boosts our confidence going into conference play, and hopefully we can use it as momentum,” senior outside hitter Nora Herian said.
Bluejays Take On GACC
By Avery Brunckhorst
The Bluejays of Pierce took on the Guardian Angels Central Catholic Bluejays on Tuesday, October 13, and though both Bluejays battled, Pierce won all three sets against GACC.
Throughout the game, Pierce faced a few challenges.
“The biggest challenge while playing GACC was playing to our pace and standard; they slowed the game down and made it hard to terminate, but I thought we did well not playing down to our level. In future games, we can definitely make our first touches better,” senior outside hitter Nora Herian said.
The ending scores of all three sets were close, but GACC still could not keep up with the Bluejays. The score of the first set was 26-24, the ending score of the second set was 25-22, and the third set was 25-18.
Junior Kyndal Werner was active on the defensive side with eight digs and two blocks; senior Herian also had two digs and two blocks; and freshman Alayna Herian had two blocks and two digs.
The Bluejays all worked hard, staying focused to beat GACC with 53 total digs as a team, and senior Josie Painter led the team, ending with 18 of those digs.
Catch the Bluejays in their next game on Thursday, October 22, at the Mid-State conference tournament at Wayne State College.
JV Bluejays Compete at Summerland Volleyball Quad
By Natasha Zamora
The Pierce JV volleyball team hit back against Summerland and Battle Creek declaring two victorious victories at Summerland on October 12.
Coach Katie Brummels compliments her team on how these aspects stood out in each of the games.
“The girls came together and played really well. From serving and attacking to our defensive efforts, so many aspects of our play stood out in each of the games. It was a fun night of volleyball and a great start to the final week of the regular season,” Brummels said.
The Bluejays took on Summerland in their first match, fighting a tough battle to win the first set ending 25-12 with Pierce winning. In the second set, Pierce took another win, the score ending at 25-15.
“The JV team can really be up and down, depending on the night, and I think we've done a good job by the end of the season of not having our lows be quite so low, and just playing very consistently,” Brummels said..
Pierce then faced Battle Creek, who put up a fight in the first set, but Pierce won 25-20. The Bluejays finished the second set with a win as well with a score of 25-8.
Meredith Krienert talked about how the Bluejays kept their motivation during the match with Battle Creek.
“Definitely going into the game, we were super fired up and we wanted to get our revenge. And I feel like when we went on runs against Battle Creek, it just kept feeding our motivation to beat them,” Krienert said.
The JV Lady Jays continued to work together and gain experience throughout the quad as they prepared for their upcoming matches.
Krienert reflects on how playing volleyball has helped her grow and create memories with her teammates.
“I feel like I just learned to appreciate the sport more, every action I play, because it's like, you realize new things, and you have new memories with your teammates, and it just makes it more fun,” Krienert said.
