TRAVERSE CITY — Traverse City St. Francis looks forward to playing Elk Rapids in its new gymnasium.
First, the Gladiators needed to get past Traverse City Christian, winning 25-10, 25-14, 25-16 in Thursday’s volleyball match on the Sabres’ floor a week before heading to the Elks’ new digs.
“I’m so excited for that new gym,” St. Francis senior setter Tessah Konas said. “We were talking about that earlier. It’s going to be even better just to have a better gym to play in. And it’s also just a great game to play. We love playing Elk Rapids.”
Konas recalls playing at Elk Rapids in past seasons and having to deal with the low roof that’s no longer an issue with the school’s new — and full-size — gymnasium. Balls that hit the ceiling are in play in volleyball, leaving players scrambling to adjust to a new trajectory after a roof shot.
“It takes a lot of talking throughout our team,” Konas said. “But we figure it out. We adjust.”
The No. 5-ranked Glads and No. 6 Elks could play four times this season. They met up last week in TCSF’s home 25-23, 25-7, 25-15 win, both play in McBain’s tournament in October, and then the Glads and Elks play in the same district bracket at Elk Rapids.
Elk Rapids is the only former Lake Michigan Conference school that scheduled matches with St. Francis after the LMC broke apart this year and left TCSF independent.
“It should be a really good matchup for sure this time,” St. Francis head coach Kathleen Nance said. “Both of us, the nerves are gone. We’ve already played each other, and both teams are going to play probably their best game of volleyball.”
Before heading to Elk Rapids, the Gladiators had to relish playing even closer to home Thursday. With only five games at St. Francis this season, one only a few miles away seems like a home contest.
TC St. Francis was able to tinker a bit, while the young Sabres continued to grow.
“It’s a really fun game to play,” Konas said. “It lets us experiment. It lets us try new things. Like Reese and Aubrey have become right sides recently, and they got to play middle. It’s also really good for me, because I just started playing front row recently, so it’s a good practice round for me getting more comfortable with it.”
The Sabres have only two seniors — Alyssa Wylie and middle blocker Shelby Oster, who had three kills and two blocks. Three underclassmen play most of the time.
“We have from ages 13 to 18 on our team right now, so it can create a different dynamic, for sure,” TC Christian head coach Hannah Pohlman said. “With young players, it’s just a bit of a different mental game, and they’re going to error a little bit higher just because they’re young, which is OK. The future definitely looks bright, that’s for sure.”
TC Christian was led by junior Lydia Critchfield (10 assists, three digs, one block, two aces), freshman Ashlynn Stimpson (two kills, two digs), Wylie (one kill, one block), sophomore Olivia Strehl (five kills, one assist, one block), junior Mackenna Oster (seven digs), junior Lydia Tebben (three digs, two aces), freshman Scarlet Bouwmeester (two kills, three digs, one block) and junior Kirsten Crosby (one block).
“Mackenna Oster really did a nice job adjusting to their offense and asking questions and figuring out a way to dig the ball,” Pohlman said. “Olivia Strehl did a really nice job managing the ball, especially as just a sophomore, being able to attack and not being afraid and staying pretty level-headed tonight.”
The Gladiators — which only trailed once in the match, when the Sabres scored the third game’s first point — played all dozen varsity players.
Quinn Yenshaw led the way with 14 kills, eight digs, five aces and a block, but the Glads received production from all over as all 12 put up multiple stats, including Reese Jones (18 assists, seven digs, one kill), Reese Muma (two digs, two kills), Avery Nance (six digs, one ace), Lola Brown (two kills), Landry Fouch (eight kills, two digs), Coco Miller (one ace, one dig), Larry Hurley (five kills, one dig), Konas (19 assists, one dig, one kill), Harper Nausadis (nine kills, one block, one dig), Grace Mason (five aces, six digs) and Aubrey Lesinski (one block, one kill).
“Harper Nausadis got a lot of touches tonight, and she did great with that,” Kathleen Nance said. “Landry and Larry did a really nice job. Reese Muma came in, and when she played right side, she did a great job for us, too. Then she played middle in the third set, and did a really nice job there, too.”
Mason closed out the first game with one of her five aces.
St. Francis (14-7-2) has won eight consecutive matches after a 6-7-2 start to the season against a schedule full of much larger schools.
“They do have a lot of talent on their side,” Kathleen Nance said. “They’re just pretty young, and they’re still working things out. It was a really nice opportunity for us to kind of fine tune some things and just have some fun and play good volleyball.”
TC Christian (2-11) plays Saturday at the Kalkaska Invitational, then hosts the Blazers next Thursday and Grand Traverse Academy on Oct. 4.
“For a Class D school, we’re getting to play some pretty high-level teams,” Pohlman said. “Sometimes the scores don’t reflect how much we’re battling. This is my third year here with the program and I’m really proud of the progress we’re making.”