FRUITPORT – The Fruitport volleyball team is starting to play like a mature squad with confidence in its abilities.

The Trojans demonstrated that on Tuesday by easily disposing of three non-conference opponents, just three days after winning the O-K Silver conference title in a high-pressure situation at the conference tournament.

Fruitport continued to flex its muscle with straight sets wins over North Muskegon (25-12, 25-20), Grant (25-15, 25-12) and Allendale (25-14, 25-20) in its final matches of the regular season.

Winning is something new for the Trojans (32-11), who only have two seniors, but at this key point in the season, they seem to have it down.

They’ve now won seven straight matches, all in straight sets, and appear to be peaking at the perfect time, with districts – the first leg of the state tournament – beginning next week.

There have been a few slips along the way.

Two weeks ago the Trojans were cruising along with an undefeated conference record, and jumped out to a pair of leads over Calvin Christian in a first-place showdown, but crumbled down the stretch and lost in five sets.

In the GMAA city tournament final against Mona Shores, they won the first two sets but lost the next three and had to settle for runner-up status.

But coming back and winning the O-K Silver championship at the conference tournament last Saturday – with four wins in one day – got the Trojans back on track, and the three victories on Tuesday gave them a real head of steam.

The next challenge is next week’s Division 2 district tournament. Fruitport has a first-round bye, and will play the winner of the Whitehall-Orchard View match a week from Thursday.

“I have a young team, and sometimes we have to remind ourselves of the tools that we have,” said Fruitport Coach Nicole Bayle. “We have done a good job of being in control and taking care of the ball.”

One area where the Trojans have done well is in the service game, and that was certainly the case again on Tuesday when they piled up 20 aces (unreturned serves) for points.

Tara Sweet led the way with six aces, followed by Gracelynn Olson with five, and Alexa Sweet, Ellie Stroup, Izzy Hanson-Wilbur and Sadie Haase with two apiece.

“One thing I think our team does well over some of the opponents we have played is serve well,” Bayle said. “We take teams out of what they want to do by serving tough and controlling the ball.”

The Trojans also pounded home a lot of kills, with a total of 64 on the night. Haase, a dominant senior at the net, accounted for nearly half of them with 30, while Stroup added 11, Hanson-Wilbur had nine, Olson collected seven and Emma Danicek had five.

Olson also had another big assist night with 51.

Defensively, the Trojans had a full team effort, with numerous players diving around to keep the ball in play.

Tara Sweet had 18 digs, followed closely by Stroup with 17, Emma Fecher and Hanson-Wilbur with 16 apiece, and Olson and Alexa Sweet with 14 apiece.