By Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter
On Saturday the Merrill volleyball team traveled to Stevens Point Area High School for the first leg of the Wisconsin Valley Conference tournament. Merrill would see SPASH in their first match and lose in four sets.
The Jays took the first set from SPASH by a score of 26-16. In the second set Merrill had a commanding lead, however would let it slip away and end up losing the set 21-25. SPASH would go on to win the next two sets by scores of 17-25 and 18-25.
“We started off the morning playing SPASH,” said Merrill head coach Kris Krug. “In the first set we were able to come away with a win. We had every opportunity to take set two away from SPASH as we were up by 9 points, instead we fell apart in serve receive and lost our intensity. That was a blow that was too difficult to bounce back from. However, we will learn from our faults and get another chance to take a match from them at the end of the regular season.”
Merrill would then play against Wausau East and show their dominance, winning in three staight sets. The Jays won the first set by a score of 25-13, the second by a score of 25-13 and the third and final set by a score of 25-12.
Following the East win, Merrill would play against Marshfield and take them down in three straight sets as well. Merrill took the first set 25-14, the second set 25-15 and the third set 25-19 to take the win.
“I was happy with our play against East and Marshfield and that we continued to play tough even after losing that first match.” concluded coach Krug.
Merrills’ attack was led by Megan Schroder who tallied 26 kills on the day. Elizabeth Iribarren would total 14 kills on the day and Rylee Mracheck would end with 13 kills.
Merrill had some great serving with a serving percentage over 95% all day. Leading servers include Kelsie Belfiori who served 100% in two games and had eight aces to go along with it. Kaylee Bowe was perfect all day serving 100% in all three games, with three aces. Ellie Hartson served 100% in two games, with six aces on the day. Rachel Travis served 100% in two games as well and came up with three aces.
On Thursday Merrill will head over to Wisconsin Rapids for a confernce match up agasint Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln High School, starting at 7 p.m.