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By Ryan Schlehuber, MCC Sportswriter

Fans were treated to a high-action scrap between the Montcalm Community College Centurions women’s volleyball team and the visiting Grace Christian University Tigers, Tuesday, Aug. 26.��

The game went the distance, as both teams went back and forth, settling the outcome in a fifth set, with the Tigers coming away with the win, 15-9.��

The first set started out with a heated back-and-forth play until Grace was able to bump a 15-14 lead to 19-14 after sophomore Kiana Nickerson (Edmore, Mich.) served an ace that found a hole in the middle of MCC’s serve receive. The Centurions (0-0 MCCAA Northern, 0-5 overall) would stay in it, however, after Grace hit the ball out of bounds two consecutive times, making it 21-18 in favor of the away team.��

The Tigers then went on a three-point stretch, pushing their lead to 24-19 when the Centurions couldn’t get the ball over the net on three attempts.����

Something sparked in the home team, however.����

Facing game point, Alanna Kent (Belding, Mich.) got a rally started, hitting a great set-up by sophomore setter Jordan Dompreh (Flint, Mich.). Dompreh then earned a kill herself on the next play, making it 24-21, giving the Centurions a needed boost in confidence.��

Kent came up with a wonderful tip over the net that found open floor on the Tigers’ side and sophomore Katelyn Bignall (Belding, Mich.) earned an ace on her serve, pulling MCC to just one point from tying.����

With the crowd and her teammates on the sideline cheering, Bignall served again but hit the ball into the net, which took the air out of the Centurions’ momentum, giving the Tigers a 25-23 win.��

The late run, however, gave the Centurions new-found energy and they used it to dominate the Tigers in the second set, racing out to a 15-8 lead after Dompreh successfully blocked Grace’s Alexa Borgman’s (Holland, Mich.) spike at the net. MCC pushed its lead to 11 (22-11) with back-to-back serve aces from Bignall.����

The Tigers could only get two more points before the Centurions closed it out with a 25-13 win.��

MCC continued its momentum in the third set, getting into a groove offensively, establishing a 14-8 lead after back-to-back serving aces from the team’s electric freshman power hitter Emily Davis (Jenison, Mich.).����

MCC went on a 9-2 run to lead 18-10 after freshman Hailey Guerra (Grant, Mich.) slammed a shot to the Tigers’ side after a great set by Dompreh.��

MCC cruised the rest of the way, winning 25-17, going up 2-1 in the game.��

“We were way more on and we were talking a lot better,” Davis said. “Our communication was a little off in that first set. In the second set, we were really hyped. Our kills were a lot better then.”��

MCC Head Coach Kara Youngs said when her team is playing “in system,” they are hard to beat.��

“I thought we were in system a lot,” Youngs said of her team’s play in the second and third set. “We were able to run our offense more. Our hitters were being a lot more aggressive in both sets. I think that was the big difference. We stayed with it more, we were aggressive at the net. We just had a lot of consistency on that side in those two sets, but that’s where we started to lose consistency after those.”��

In set four, Grace tightened up its defense and began relying on its power hitters — Borgman and freshman Eleanor Dawson (Grand Rapids, Mich.). The Centurions also began beating themselves, serving into the net four times and players were caught out of position on several plays, allowing the Tigers to go on a 6-2 run, establishing a 13-9 lead.����

Grace went on another offensive run, outscoring the Centurions 11-4 to win 25-14, evening the match at 2-2.��

“(Grace) started to serve-receive better, but we went right into the fourth set missing three serves, so we lost a lot of momentum from that,” Youngs said. “It didn’t hurt us at the time as it was just 3-3, but when you get towards the end of the game and you see the difference in the score, those first serves really do matter, no matter how early it is in the game.”��

In the fifth and final set, the Tigers jumped out to an 8-2 lead when Borgman’s serve found an open spot in the Centurions’ defense. MCC looked as though it was going to make another comeback as Grace’s Madison Postma (Holland, Mich.) hit the ball into the net two consecutive plays, cutting Grace’s lead to 10-7, forcing the Tigers to call a timeout.��

The timeout gave Grace players a chance to collect themselves and it paid off as the Tigers would score the next three points, all on miscues by the Centurions. After Dawson scored on a tipped ball over the net, the Tigers went up 14-9 and won the match when Borgman spiked a ball the Centurions couldn’t touch, earning Grace a 15-9 set win and a 3-2 match victory.��

Davis believes her team just lost the energy to finish out, which is something she and her teammates learned from Tuesday’s loss.��

“I think most of the issue in the next two sets was that our energy was going down. I feel like we went into it thinking we were just going to win it, but we got ahead of ourselves,” she said. “I learned I just have to keep my energy up the whole time. Even if I’m tired or my team is tired, you still have to make sure everyone is up and make sure everyone is doing their job and they are on. I feel like everyone was getting tired and that was getting into their heads.”��

Youngs said she will be focusing on the team’s offense in the upcoming practices to be ready for its away match at Schoolcraft College, Thursday, Aug. 28.��

“I think the big thing, especially after this past weekend, we had a lot more offense going on tonight,” she said after the Grace game. “We lost the first set close, but we came back and refocused ourselves. We had a rough fourth set and fifth set, but they still kept battling. They didn’t really quit until the very end.”��

Davis led the team with 16 kills, followed by Kent, with 15, and both Guerra and Bignall finished with eight. Dompreh ended with 42 assists.��

Sophomore Jaden Gomez (White Cloud, Mich.) had 22 digs, followed by freshman Erin Borek (Grand Rapids, Mich.) and Davis, who each had 14.����

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UP NEXT: The Centurions will travel to Livonia on August 28 to compete against Schoolcraft College in a tri meet, also featuring Kellogg Community College. Game time is 3 p.m. The Ocelots, which compete in the MCCAA Eastern Division, are 2-2 overall, while Kellogg Community College is also 2-2.��