The high school volleyball season is just three days old, but the GPS Bruisers are off to a great start as they have now one both of their matches and both on the road.
Monday’s win was at Walker Valley while Wednesday’s latest victory came at Notre Dame. The Bruisers will still be on the road this weekend with a tournament in Knoxville.
It’s been a positive experience so far for first-year head coach Sam Haimann, who came to GPS after a year in Nashville and several years in Denver. He’s originally from New Jersey, but he obviously knows a little bit about volleyball and how to motivate his team to play well.
“That wasn’t too bad,” he began after his team beat the Lady Irish in three straight sets by scores of 25-21, 25-14 and 25-14.
“I know that we had a lot of service errors, but being aggressive at that spot is a priority for us. We still have a lot to build on, but we had some good decisions from our setters, our middles were active and I felt like we had a pretty good performance for our second match.
“We were a little slow starting today and we want to be better early in the match, but we want to start fast, finish fast and play strong in between,” he added.
Wednesday’s match was the season opener for coach Laurie McGinley and her Lady Irish. She would have liked a different result, but she saw a lot of positives and plenty of room for her girls to get better.
“Now it’s just a matter of where we go from here, but we have loads of potential and this team has a totally different dynamic from last year. I’m really proud of our effort today, but we just ran out of steam. There’s plenty of room to grow, but I’m excited about our future. And I’m confident that we will only get better from here,” she added with a smile.
Two straight kills from Madden Cothron allowed Notre Dame to build a 4-1 lead in the opening set. The Bruisers were able to tie the score at 6-6, 15-15 and 16-16, but a kill from Catie Nicola gave the Bruisers the lead for the first time at 17-16 and they never trailed again in that opening set.
A kill from Sophia Jenkins, a pair of kills from Georgia Mae Anderson wrapped around an ace from Jenkins allowed the Bruisers to score four straight points for a 22-18 lead and they claimed that opening set a minute later following another kill from Anderson.
Notre Dame scored the first point of the second set before GPS scored eight of the next nine and the lead only continued to grow as the momentum for the Bruisers kept building and they were starting to feel really comfortable with each other on the court.
A kill from Brynn Goldsmith gave GPS its biggest lead at 21-12 and the momentum was clearly on the GPS side when Nicola recorded another kill.
The Lady Irish had a brief rally in the third set and knotted the score at 5-5 following an ace by Ty Maddox, but the Bruisers quickly regained the momentum by scoring five of the next six points and it never got much closer, two kills from Nicola and an ace from Chapman Mathis sealing the deal.
Anderson set the stage for the Bruisers with 13 kills and two digs while Jenkins had 25 assists and 10 digs among other things. Nicola was also effective with nine kills while Cat Nygaard helped the winning cause with 15 digs.
Addie Kitchings led Notre Dame with eight kills and 11 digs while Aniyah Brown had 10 assists in addition to four kills, four digs, an ace and a block. Callie McCormick finished with a dozen digs.
While GPS will travel to Knoxville to participate in the Sunsphere Tournament, Notre Dame will be back at home on Thursday to face Baylor.
GPS STATS:
Georgia Mae Anderson – 13 kills, 2 blocks
Madison Cox – 1 kill, 2 digs
Brynn Goldsmith – 4 kills, 2 blocks
Elizabeth Holland – 9 digs
Sophia Jenkins – 25 assists, 10 digs, 4 kills, 1 ace
Chapman Mathis – 5 digs, 2 aces
Morgan Moore – 3 kills, 1 block, 3 aces
Catie Nicola – 9 kills, 3 digs
Cat Nygaard – 15 digs, 1 ace, 3 assists
Sophia O’Keefe – 1 kill, 2 aces, 3 digs
Addi Smith – 1 kill.
NOTRE DAME STATS:
Aniyah Brown – 4 kills, 4 digs, 1 block, 1 ace, 10 assists
Charlee Campbell – 1 block
Madden Cothron – 4 kills, 11 digs, 1 assist
Addie Kitchings – 8 kills, 11 digs, 4 assists
Ansley Loyd – 1 kill, 2 digs
Ty Maddox – 1 ace
Callie McCormick – 12 digs, 1 assist
Karley Nutz – 2 digs
Annabell Schexnaildre – 2 digs
Sidney Sullivan – 2 digs.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)