WHITEHALL- The Whitehall volleyball team has been waiting patiently for its turn to win a championship in the always tough West Michigan Conference.
The Vikings feel this may be the year that they return to glory in league play, and their record suggests they may be right.
Whitehall continued to impress on Tuesday with a three-set victory over North Muskegon in a conference showdown for first place in the standings.
The Vikings won by set scores of 25-10, 25-16 and 25-22 to improve to 19-2 overall on the season and 6-0 in conference play.
“We are very pleased with where this season is going thus far,” said Whitehall coach Ted Edsall. “The seniors have been carrying this team while the underclassmen have been improving as we have been going along.”
[1]Whitehall is having a strong season despite having only nine girls on the roster.
“Having a low number of players was definitely not by design,” Edsall said. “We had some injuries and unfortunately some girls decided not to go out for volleyball this season.”
The Vikings still have work to do to earn a regular season conference title. But they are in the driver’s seat with a league game against a one-loss Montague team on the horizon.
“We have beat them twice so far this year in invitational play,” Edsall said about Montague. “But I told the kids that it is hard to beat somebody three times, and they do a great job over there. We are not taking anybody for granted.”
The other half of the league title will be determined at the West Michigan Conference tournament, which will be in Whitehall in about three weeks.
[2]The Vikings were paced offensively by Rayne Thompson with 20 kills and Charley Klint with 11. Maggie Evans chipped in with 38 assists along with four aces.
Ryleigh Mott led Whitehall defensively with 17 digs and Sidney Shepherd had three blocks.
Whitehall jumped out to a 10-2 lead during the opening set on a long service run by Evans. The Vikings continued their strong play during the first set with another long service run, this time by Chase Baker, which increased their advantage to 19-7.
Whitehall closed out the opening set on a 6-3 run.
Whitehall struggled early in the second set, trailing 3-0 and 6-2 on an opening service run by North Muskegon senior Jesse Cooke and points scored up front by Natalie Pannucci.
But the Vikings rallied and tied the score 6-6, then plowed ahead to a 15-7 lead after completing a 13-1 run sparked by great serving by Evans and Thompson.
[3]Whitehall closed out the second set by scoring 10 of the final 17 points.
The Vikings continued to dominate in the third set, jumping out to a 9-3 lead on a service run by Thompson.
North Muskegon showed some life, going on a 14-9 run to cut its deficit to 18-17. But Whitehall closed out the match by scoring seven of the final 12 points.
Thompson finished off North Muskegon with a kill to complete the win.
“It didn’t matter what the point deficit was, the team was still fighting,” said North Muskegon coach Kammi Eacker. “They wanted to win really badly, and I saw a lot of good things today. We will have another chance with them at city and the conference tournament, so all eyes are ahead for us.”
The Norse was led by Pannucci with 10 kills while Sami Baker chipped in with 17 assists.
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