WL Northern advances with a sweep of Lakers
WEST BLOOMFIELD >> In a district full of familiar opponents, Walled Lake Northern drew the only team it hasn’t played in 2022 in Tuesday’s Division 1 postseason opener.
The Knights matched up with host West Bloomfield in a bracket of all Lakes Valley Conference teams outside of the Lakers.
Despite the unfamiliarity with its opponent, Walled Lake Northern had all the answers for the Lakers’ questions, turning in a 25-11, 25-10, 25-19 victory.
“We played really well together as a team and executed very well as a team. We need to stay consistent with playing Northern volleyball and we did that tonight,” Northern coach Suzanne Krygier said. “Northern volleyball is about passing well, establishing our middles and utilizing our outsides. When we are able to do that, we can be a great team and I think that showed for stretches tonight.”
Along with the passing and hitting, Northern had some strong serving from junior setter Ava Epley. She tallied eight aces for the match and helped establish multiple scoring runs for the Knights.
“We really focus on not just having some tough serves, but making sure we put together some nice runs to establish momentum. That’s been something we’ve talked a lot about. I’m proud of (Epley) for doing a great job of executing from the service line tonight,” Krygier said.
Epley had four aces early in the opening set to get Northern out to an 11-1 lead on West Bloomfield that set the tone for the rest of the match.
When facing the West Bloomfield serve, the Knights were strong and had consistent passing, led by senior libero Olivia Bonkowski. Her play allowed the Northern offense to stay insystem and get the ball to their power hitters Carleigh Santavy, Bella Harding and Kayla Budziak.
“We did a really good job of passing tonight and that led to a lot of good things for our offense. When our offense was on, it was because we had a lot of great passes that allowed us to swing away at balls,” Krygier said.
The Lakers got better as the match went on and held some leads in the third set thanks to an improved blocking performance. West Bloomfield re
corded five blocks in the final set to stay within reach of the Knights.
“We finally started to hone in on our blocking in the third. We just didn’t have an answer for (Northern’s) right side,” West Bloomfield coach Nancy McKouen said. “They swung the ball really well
and we just couldn’t slow them down.”
Harding finished with 13 kills to lead Northern in the win, while Budziak had 10 and Santavy had nine.
The Knights improve to 27-14-3 with the win on Tuesday. They will now meet up with Walled Lake Central in Thursday’s district semifinal. Northern won all three meetings with the Vikings during the season.
Senior Reagan Cherfoli
and junior Jordanne Shannon each had four kills to lead the Lakers on Tuesday. They graduate six seniors from their 2022 squad.
“I hope the girls can build off the work ethic that we established this year. That was a big improvement from last year,” McKouen said. “We are a work in progress. We have a lot of size to work with, it’s just a matter of getting them all to work together and be on the same page.”