News

By Ryan Schlehuber, MCC Sportswriter

After finishing the month of September with a 5-5 record, the Montcalm Community College Centurions women’s volleyball team was seeking to get an early jump on October with a win over Muskegon Community College on the road, Wednesday, Oct. 1, but stumbled to a 3-0 loss. 

The Centurions (1-5 MCCAA Northern, 5-13 overall) had the opportunity to finish September with a winning record, however, they dropped a home game to Delta College, losing 3-1, Sept. 29.  

A big part of the challenge lately for MCC Head Coach Kara Youngs and her team is overcoming injuries, as the Centurions have now lost three players for the season due to injury — freshman outside hitter Hailey Guerra (Grant, Mich.), freshman middle blocker Edy Davidson (Carson City, Mich.) and freshman middle blocker Esther Iung (Perrinton, Mich.). 

“We’ve had a lot of lineup changes to adjust to because of injuries,” Youngs said. “Especially with two of them being middle blockers.” 

Despite recent losses to Delta and Muskegon, Youngs said her team has responded well to the musical chairs of positioning. 

“Regardless of the injuries, they’ve shown to be adaptable,” she said. “If this happened at the beginning of the year, I don’t think our young team would’ve been able to do that very well. But now, they’re able to adapt to situations instead of letting it cause chaos and confusion. They’ve been very diverse in that area.” 

MCC lost to Delta in four sets — 23-25, 25-15, 14-25 and 11-25. Youngs said her team played strong in the first two sets, showcasing perhaps its highest energy of the season. 

“As far as emotion, their competitiveness and fierceness were really on display,” Youngs said. “They just played very well.” 

After winning the second set, communication began to break down, which led to frustrations and more mistakes, Youngs said. Delta had also begun putting things together both offensively and defensively, which ultimately led to MCC losing the next two sets. 

“We had so much energy and excitement playing Delta, but that faded in sets three and four,” Youngs said. “We have energy, especially at home, but we just need to pull that through all our sets.” 

Freshman Emily Davis (Jenison, Mich.) led the team in kills with 11 while sophomore libero Jaden Gomez (White Cloud, Mich.) performed well, collecting 21 digs and seven serving aces.  

Youngs said Gomez continues to perform well, being more consistent, as her individual statistics show. 

“Jaden really worked on a lot of adjustments and reading the other team,” Youngs said. 

With the win, Delta (2-4 MCCAA Northern, 6-7 overall) moved ahead of MCC in the conference standings, taking over fifth place.  

Against Muskegon (5-0 MCCAA Northern, 12-5 overall), the Centurions were defeated 21-25, 21-25 and 14-25. Youngs didn’t want to use the absence of her injured players as an excuse for the team’s loss, stating her team just needs to “stay in system” and play more consistently in order to put itself in line for a win. 

“Our numbers are positive, but it’s been about putting it out there and staying mentally strong, especially when things aren’t going well,” Youngs said. “We need the mindset to understand that negative things can happen to the other team too and we need to know where to get it back in other areas.” 

UP NEXT: MCC’s next game is at Bay College (2-3 MCCAA Northern, 7-7 overall), which is Wednesday, Oct. 8. Game time is 6:30 p.m. The Centurions will then take on conference leader Grand Rapids Community College (6-0 MCCAA Northern, 9-2 overall) at home Monday, Oct. 13, which will be themed as a “Pink Out” game. Game time is 6:30 p.m.