The last matches before the Christmas holidays made for a successful night for both the senior and junior girls volleyball teams at North Star High School.
The senior girls improved to 3-2 on the WECSSAA Tier 1 volleyball season by defeating the visiting Tecumseh Vista Academy Vortex in three straight sets Dec. 17. The Wolves won by scores of 25-15, 25-19 and 25-20.
“I thought it was good,” Wolves captain Lauren Essenpreis said of the match. “They are obviously missing a couple of their top players. We did what we needed to do.”
Essenpreis believed North Star didn’t play their best match, but they got the job done.
Camryn Carmack, a first-year player on the senior Wolves team, said it was a good match against Tecumseh Vista Academy and everyone got playing time.
“We’re really learning a lot,” she said of the new players.
Essenpreis pointed out they lost to Riverside in regular season play but the team has improved to where they beat Riverside in the recent Black & Gold Invitational held in Amherstburg.
The Wolves finished first in the Silver Bracket at the tournament.
Communication and being more vocal on the court are things Carmack said they need to work on while Essenpreis said their defense was one of the aspects of their game they would like to improve.
“It was a little dicey at first,” assistant coach Mary Ewer said of the match against Tecumseh Vista.
The Wolves played “a little sloppy” early on, she added but they did well as the match went on. She said the Wolves had their tournament the week before while those who played on a club team played in another tournament later in the weekend.
Fatigue and soreness was setting in on some of the players due to all the action, Ewer said, and she gave the bench players credit for stepping up.
“Lily McConnell came off the bench and played really well,” she said. “We got everyone in the game before Christmas and we will reset in the new year.”
“It wasn’t our best effort,” added head coach Jeff Miller. “It was a little ugly a bit at the start.”
Miller agreed that players are sore due to the number of matches they played in tournaments just days before and “their bodies are a little beat up.” He said they got through the match as best they could.
North Star had a good month of December, he said.
“Our kids got a lot better,” he said.
Miller said they hope that continues when they resume in January, with the first matches of the 2025 portion of the schedule being Jan. 7 at home versus Villanova and Jan. 9 at Holy Names.
The juniors won their first match of the season, also against Tecumseh Vista Academy Dec. 17. They improved to 1-4 on the WECSSAA Tier 1 schedule thanks to a 25-13, 25-18 and 25-19 win. They also host Villanova and travel to Holy Names when the schedule resumes.
By Ron Giofu
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