The East Lansing girls’ varsity volleyball team put up a fight against the Dewitt Panthers on Sept. 18, but it wasn’t enough. After playing four rounds in total, the team was unable to secure the win.
Their defense struggled to dial a good pass to the setters, but when the ball hit the right spot, the digs were executed to get a point. After losing the first round of the game, East Lansing came back to win the second set, showing noticeable improvement in gameplay.
Kennedy Thomas (9) expressed that they didn’t play the best they could and let small mistakes distract them from moving on to the next point.
“We knew that Dewitt gave everything they had in the first game, and we knew for a fact we didn’t,” Thomas said.
The team changed their approach in the second set and played as a team instead of 6 different people on the court. As a result, Thomas’ and Ari Johnson’s (12) blocking visibly improved. At the end of the second set, the score was 20-24, game point, and the Panthers had the serve. The ball was returned by Amariana Bowers (12), and after a long rally, East Lansing won the set 25-20.
Going into the third set, East Lansing was down, but still put up a fight to finish out the last half of the game. Sets from Thomas to her outside hitters resulted in points, but it wasn’t enough. The team’s ball return was not as precise as they hoped for, playing a big factor in the rest of the game.
For Arieana Carter (11), her and her team play better off of a mindset called ‘next ball’ mentality.
“After a point, no matter if it’s good or bad, we just move onto the next thing and don’t dwell on it,” Carter said.
Carter felt that their gameplay was poorly affected by staying hung up on the last point and letting this continue into the next.
“We weren’t practicing the next ball mentality, and that played a big role,” Carter says. Thomas felt that, as a team, they all needed to be more uplifting toward each other in between points rather than negative.
The team faces Holt on Sept. 25. Thomas and her team are looking to work on their chemistry as well as communication to better succeed in this upcoming game.
