By Travis Smola
After being eliminated by Edwardsburg in the first round of Divisional matchups last year, the Vicksburg varsity volleyball team got redemption in a wild, five-set war against the Eddies at home.
“That was an amazing match for both teams,” Head Coach Katrina Miller said afterwards. The victory left her nearly at a loss for words. “Great competition. Exactly what we needed here at Vicksburg.”
The Lady Bulldogs came out strong in the first set, blocking shots and getting kill after kill. Vicksburg won the first set, 25-16. It evened out in the second set, which came down to the wire. The teams got near the end of the match tying it up four times at 24-24, 25-25, 26-26 and 27-27. Finally, the Lady Bulldogs were able to get the last two points and edge out a 29-27 win.
But the game wasn’t over yet. In the next couple of sets, Vicksburg came out uncharacteristically flat and allowed the Eddies to knot things up 25-14 in the third and 25-12 in the fourth to send the game into a fifth set. Miller said her advice to the girls before the final set was short and simple.
“Play with confidence, don’t play scared to lose. Don’t play scared to make mistakes because then you will lose. Just play with confidence one hundred percent the whole time. That’s what they did.”
Vicksburg took an early 4-0 lead in the fifth set and never fell more than three points behind as they hung on to win the final set 15-11. The student body in attendance rushed the court in excitement afterwards. The win should be a huge confidence boost for the Lady Bulldogs going forward.
“We’ve had some tough games where we just haven’t played up to our potential,” Miller said. “So, that was good not just because we beat Edwardsburg, but we finally got to play at our potential. That’s what the big deal was tonight.”
Prior to this game, Edwardsburg hadn’t lost a regular season conference matchup in almost two years. Miller credited the seniors for working hard and leading the way this season.
“We have six seniors who are phenomenal players,” Miller said. “My outside hitter, Rylie Richter, is just a beast and my center (Camille Wadley) is just working her butt off. All six of my seniors are just doing what they need to do to hopefully have a good year, so we’ll see where it goes from here.”