Spartan volleyball sweeps through home invite

GRUNDY CENTER – The Class 2A No. 3 Grundy Center volleyball team is at times still looking for the right amount of intensity to bring to each match early on in the season.
 
But the Spartans got the results they wanted, sweeping the competition at a round-robin quadrangular in Grundy Center on Tuesday night.
 
The Spartans didn't drop a single set in victories over AGWSR (21-3, 21-8), Hudson (21-9, 21-19) and West Branch (21-10, 21-7). Emerson Kracht had 12 total kills on the night, with Landry Luhring putting down 11 kills across the three matches. Sydney Mathews distributed 22 total assists.
 
"The girls did a good job of getting the job done," Grundy Center coach Lori Willis said. "I'd say that the girls struggled with intensity in the first two matches. … You want to be relaxed, but you still want to be hungry.
 
"Against West Branch, I really liked the energy we had, they knew they had messed up a bit and wanted to come out hard against West Branch."
 

The AGWSR volleyball team celebrates a rally point in a match with Hudson at the Grundy Center Invite last Tuesday. (Jake Ryder/The Grundy Register photo)
 
For the young AGWSR volleyball team, it was an opportunity to see some top-tier competition. The Cougars were swept by Hudson, 21-11, 21-8, and again by West Branch, 21-17, 21-10.
 
While AGWSR wasn't able to score a victory in any of the three matches on Tuesday, Stacy Drake sees the competition as a helpful lesson for a Cougars squad that had as many as three freshmen on the court at one time.
 
"This is good for the girls to see," Drake said. "It's good for the girls to see that skill level and maybe play up to it."
 
Read more in the Sept. 7 Grundy Register.