NORTH MUSKEGON – Championship teams usually have that one player who can step up and take control when things are not going well.
For the Western Michigan Christian volleyball team, that’s senior Kyla Wiersema, the big girl who does so much damage at the net.
The Warriors, ranked No. 1 in the state in Division 3, were pushed to the brink on Thursday night by an upset-minded North Muskegon squad that was playing on its home court and trying to win a district title for the second year in a row.
The Norse, playing exceptional defense against the Warriors’ fearsome power game, won two of the first three sets, and were on the verge of pulling off the stunner of the season.
Then Wiersema checked in with her A game, hitting big kill after big kill when her team needed it most, and WMC rallied for an exciting 3-2 victory in the Division 3 district championship match at North Muskegon High School.
[1]The set scores were 23-25, 25-21, 22-25, 25-17 and 15-5 .
WMC, now 46-5 on the season, advances to the Division 3 regional tournament on Tuesday on its home court.
“She was a little tentative in the first part of the match,” WMC Coach Trent Smillie said about Wiersema. “Then we talked about playing our volleyball, being aggressive and attacking the ball hard. We were getting a little too happy about being careful. Whether we were going to win or lose, we were going to do it by swinging the bat. We started swinging and it made a difference on the scoreboard.”
Smillie gave a lot of credit to North Muskegon, noting that the two teams have dominated the district for the past few years.
“We’ve lost to them two of the last three years in the district final,” he said. “This is a tough district, and we’ve been the two teams coming out of it. It’s always a battle with the Norse.”
The Warriors appeared a bit tentative and stunned through the first three sets on Thursday, with North Muskegon matching them point-for point.
[2]The low point for WMC came late in the third set, when they trailed 24-17. But then Wiersema seemed to slip into another gear, pounding home three straight power kills and scoring a point off a block, helping her team narrow the deficit to two points.
North Muskegon finally scored and secured the victory to go up 2-1 in sets, but Wiersema was fully engaged at that point, and the match was far from finished.
She opened the fourth set with two straight kills and a combined block with Kendal Young, giving WMC a 3-1 lead. She added four more kills in the set, her teammates started playing with renewed confidence, and the Warriors won 25-17 to force the fifth-set tie-breaker.
Wiersema opened the fifth with even more domination, pounding three straight kills to go along with a Norse misplay, and WMC led 4-0. She added two more kills down the stretch, helping the Warriors cruise to a 15-5 win and the championship.
Wiersema admitted that she had some misplays earlier in the match when her team was struggling, but said she tried not to let it get her down.
“I try to always smile and not get down on myself, because I’m one of the leaders, and if I get down the whole team will get down,” she said.
She also admitted that she tried to step up and score big points down the stretch, because the Norse “were really good. They really showed up tonight.”
[3]“It takes the whole team,” Wiersema added about the comeback. “Our passes were really good and our setters were good.”
North Muskegon amazed the loud and energized crowd in the first two sets.
The Norse overcame an early deficit in the first set and went toe-to-toe with WMC. The score was tied eight different times before WMC grabbed a late 22-19 lead. But North Muskegon scored six of the last seven points to win the set 25-23.
The second set was even more tense, with the score tied at 11 different points, including the last time at 17-17. WMC pulled together and scored 8 of the last 12 points to grab a 25-21 win.
North Muskegon led throughout the entire third set, including 22-14 at one point, before the Warriors charged back behind Wiersema’s kills to make it close. WMC pulled within two points at 24-22, then the Norse secured the winning point to take the set and go up 2-1.
The Norse got that lead with some timely kills, and their ability to withstand a lot of power shots from the Warriors and keep the ball in play.
[4]“We’ve been working really hard on our defense,” said North Muskegon Coach Kammi Eacker, whose team finished with season with a 27-22-2 record. “We knew they had a couple big hitters and we tried to shut them down. My girls kept so many balls off the floor tonight. They play with a big dog mentality, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
North Muskegon scored the first point of the fourth set, and the score was tied 3-3, then the Warriors took control, led the rest of the way and won 25-17.
WMC had all the momentum in the fifth set, scoring 8 of the first 9 points and winning 15-5.
Despite his team’s lofty ranking, Smillie refused to look too far ahead in the state tournament.
“With this match being so tight, we have to look at what we did well and what we have to work on,” he said.
He admitted that a close match in districts might toughen up his team for the challenges ahead, “if the coach doesn’t have a heart attack or grow gray hair before it’s over.”
Natalie Pannucci led North Muskegon with 21 kills and two blocks, Sami Baker had 41 assists and Megan Houseman totaled 17 digs.