WE’VE ONLY JUST BEGUN: NJC volleyball returns to action with scrimmage victory
By Hart Pisani | hpisani@journal-advocate.com |
There was volleyball on Saturday in Colorado. It took place in the Bank of Colorado Event Center in Sterling between Northeastern Junior College and North Platte. It was only a scrimmage, the Plainswomen routed the Knights, and the regular season is still three months away. Yet still, on Saturday morning, there was volleyball once again.
If the scrimmage is any indicator of what's to come, the times will be good in Sterling when volleyball returns for good in January.
NJC swept NPCC 5-0, winning 25-19, 25-18, 25-13, 25-18, 25-19. Freshman Jade Feather, who led Sterling High School to a state championship last year, led the Plainswomen with 25 digs. Sydney Crites led NJC in kills with 11 while adding 11 digs, Kelsey Kalous added 9 kills in 3 blocks, and Andjelija Draskovic had 9 kills and 10 digs.
Olivia Himmel, Christina Pettigrew, Helin Halden, and Mayson Fago all added 9 kills as well.
The entire team contributed in one way or another and the Plainswomen looked like a force to be reckoned with in Kenzie Chrisman's first full season at the helm and Keegan Fornoff's first season with NJC period. Once again, though, the biggest story is that for the first time in roughly a year, there was volleyball in Sterling. The weight of that was not lost on Chrisman.
"I was very excited to finally play against someone other than ourselves," she said. "I'm super proud of how much work they have been putting in this last month. Overall I thought our girls did really well, but there's always something more we can work on. Sydney did a lot for us today with 11 kills while hitting .450%. Jade ran our defense and serve receive digging 25 balls and had a 2.3 serve receiver rate."
In terms of what the rotations will look like in January when the season is back in session, Chrisman expressed confidence that no matter what it ends up being, the Plainswomen will be in good shape.
"We have so many options to run with this team and that makes me excited," she said. "We had 7 girls with 9 kills or more. It's going to be hard to have a set line up when we have so many girls who can score. Something new for us this year is the possibility of running a 6-2 and I thought our girls did a great job adjusting to that."
It's hard to accept that after getting a taste of the actions, the town of Sterling will have to wait another three months before the real action resumes. Still, for a few hours on Saturday morning, volleyball was back, and the team all of Logan County will be rooting for sure looked good.
"We have a great balance of freshman and sophomores out on the court," said Chrisman. "I'm beyond excited to see what this group can do."