PLYMOUTH – After a grinder of an early season, and a huge weekend Plymouth’s Lady Pilgrim volleyball team came away with a workmanlike win over South Bend Riley in three games 25-8, 25-15, 25-15.
Saturday Plymouth celebrated a win in their annual Powerball tournament that features some of the top teams in the state including perennial powerhouses Penn and Muncie Burris. It was a feat that left their coach pleased with where his team has come early in the season.
“I feel better (about where we are),” said coach Derek Eveland of his squad’s progress. “I thought we had a great weekend. I was disappointed we didn’t come out 4-0 but I’ll take a Powerball championship any day. We were looking forward to playing Penn again. We got Valpo instead of Penn but I feel we played very well in that game.”
With that in mind Eveland was quick to remind his girls about the dangers of complacency.
“This was one of those games that you expect to win and you expect to play very well,” said Eveland. “We aren’t taking any team lightly. We talked before the game about coming out and playing like we’re playing one of the top teams in the state.
“We came out and we gave up four points early, all because of us – on a serve and three hits out,” he said. “I told them if they are going to score make them earn it. They should be running a lot a free ball we should be running a lot of quick, up tempo offense so I was pretty pleased with that.”
The strategy employed by Riley was also drastically different than what the Lady Pilgrims saw over the weekend.
“I talked to my middles – Alaina (Clady) and Kenzie (Quissell) about adjusting,” said Eveland. “We’ve had it happen before playing Penn and LaPorte and then playing LaVille. Totally different speed, different set, they’re off the net. I figured Riley would do the same. A lot of their stuff is off the net so we had to wait a little longer and it’s about timing. It preps us for playing against different styles. I was pleased with the adjustments we made.”
“They’re (Riley) aware that we have decent blockers if you go tight to the net it’s going to be right back at you and if you don’t cover well you’re in trouble,” said Eveland. “We do the same thing when we play some of the top blocking teams.”
Another obvious take away from Wednesdays win is the depth of the Plymouth team.
“This is by far the deepest team I’ve had,” said Eveland. “We sat a few girls tonight to get some games saved because they’ve played some JV and some varsity. I’m comfortable putting anybody out there. We all run the same system and it’s part of the program now where we can plug people in and they know their job.”
Plymouth is now 5-4 on the year with NLC foe Wawasee on the schedule for Thursday.
Plymouth Stat Leaders:
Digs – Kenzie Snyder 8, Kendall Rhodes 8, McKenzie Scheetz 7
Aces – Scheetz 2, Kenzie Quissell 2
Kills – Quissell 8, Scheetz 7, Alaina Clady 6
Assists – Bailey Eveland 25
Plymouth record 5-4
Plymouth JV defeated Riley 25-4, 25-5
Plymouth JV stat leaders:
Kills – Sydney Richer 4, Kate Renneker 4
Assists – Avery Christy 9
Aces – Renneker 5
Digs – Carly Poczik 3
Blocks – Christy 1
Plymouth JV record 7-2
