Wednesday night volleyball concluded the Wayne High Blue Devil fall sports season with excitement early and heartbreak late.
The Oct. 29 C1-6 Subdistrict tournament brought the best in the second-seeded Blue Devils early jumping out to a 2-0 lead before dropping the next three sets at #1 Battle Creek (25-15, 25-21, 21-25, 19-25, 10-15).
Senior Elle Powicki led Wayne at the net with 14 kills to go along with five digs and two blocks.
Blue Devil double-doubles were posted by senior Haley Kramer (five blocks, one ace) with 11 kills and 20 digs while junior Mallory Redden (one kill, solo block) recorded 41 assists and 15 digs.
Head Blue Devil volleyball coach Nichelle Daum has preached that setters need to be the biggest leaders on the court in running the offense and setting the tone.
"I think Mallory did a nice job of keeping her composure throughout the year and really the team when it came to that aspect of the game," said Daum. "Then you have the girls that bring the energy during the game and I felt like depending on the game that changed as well. At times it was Addison or Haley. Then late in the season Elle brought that energy or Jacen. I think the leadership was pretty well spread out and everyone had someone they could lean on to get the job done depending on the point in the year. I also think this group of upperclassmen has had so much experience at the varsity level, some have been playing here since their freshman year and that makes a huge difference. So they have really set an example to the younger girls for the future of the program."
Freshman Lilly Redden finished as the team leader in digs with 26 to go along with nine kills.
Junior Alexis Legler totaled four blocks, seven kills and five digs.
Senior Megan Magnuson added seven blocks (four solo), four kills, three service aces and three digs.
Sophomore Kamden Dobbins collected 10 digs.
A bright spot in the match allowed junior Addison Frank to surpass 1,000 career digs. Frank tallied 23 digs to go along with two service aces and one kill on Oct. 29.
In 100 sets played, she averaged 16.4 digs per match totaling 556 this season and has now posted 1,013 digs combined the past two seasons (according to MaxPreps.com).
Coach Daum also highlighted many of their close games were against high caliber opponents.
"We had seen most of these teams before as the majority were conference teams," said Daum. "We wanted to make a statement late in the year that earlier in the season was different and we had made some changes to our game sense then. I also think the girls have really shown an improvement in their mental toughness over the last few years and that came into play late into some long games. So we saw a lot of girls step and really lead the team on the court and try to take control of some games."
Wayne High ended their season at 21-13.
Coach Daum shared her thoughts on the excitement from one season to the next can always help lead into a new season.
"I also think the girls can use what we talk about in practice about building that mental toughness that can carry into other sports and other aspects of life as well," said Daum. "How you respond to certain situations can really make an impact. I also think as individuals the girls have gotten stronger or faster in different ways and that can help in many of the other sports that they are playing."
