Harrison volleyball gets pair of JPC wins

 By BEN MURPHY

Cleaver Sports Writer

Two days after getting a Jack Pine Conference win over St. Louis, the Harrison volleyball team stacked up another league win on Wednesday, Sept. 24. The Lady Hornets were playing at Meridian, and took down the Lady Mustangs in straight sets, 25-20, 25-10 and 25-16.

“A great sweep,” head coach Maddie Hamina said. “Cait Kirby and Alivia Winters were beasts on the net. Not only aggressive, but extremely court aware. Everyone played a part in the win against Meridian, we didn’t let up and got the job done.”

It was a full team win and Hamina felt her team did just about everything well on their way to getting it done.

“We finally put our offense and defense together and it was a beautiful mix,” she said. “Our consistency in serving, Brianna Graves had an amazing run, we were able to go on a 15-point run and it was so fun to watch. A big goal tonight was perfecting the first touch so we can run a quick offense.”

The Hornets had Lydia Kendall get nine kills and she was six-of-eight serving with three aces. Cadence Hardy had seven kills, Winters had six kills and Kirby finished with three kills and two blocks. Graves added 14 assists, three kills, and she was 22-of-26 serving and blistered seven aces. Mya Gardner had nine assists, three kills, she served eight-of-nine and had two aces and Sam Hopkins served nine-of-10 with two aces.

On Monday, Sept. 22, Harrison won a home JPC match over St. Louis, getting it done in five, 25-21, 23-25, 19-25, 25-17 and 15-12.

“The girls put in the work, going five sets is hard and they handled it really well,” Hamina said. “We have been pushing to be more aggressive on offense and take risks as often as we can. I’m so proud of the grit and determination to push through and secure another win. Our serving percentage has increased tremendously and it definitely shows.”

Leading the way in this one was Kendall, who had 11 kills, 21 digs and she served 20-of-24 with seven aces. Gardner had 14 assists, 12 digs, 19-of-21 serving with two aces, Graves contributed eight assists, 15 digs, served 15-of-18 with four aces and Hardy had seven kills, was 15-of-17 serving with two aces. Kirby managed five kills, served six-of-eight with one ace, Winters finished with three kills and Hopkins had 10 digs and served 12-of-13.

Harrison was at Pinconning on Wednesday and will be at Farwell on Thursday, Oct. 9. Both of those matches are JPC contests.

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