Jeff Chaney
Sports Scene
The Freeland volleyball team continues to spike its league competition.
The Falcons, defending Tri-Valley Central Conference champions, head into the home stretch of the 2012 season with a 34-6-3 overall record and a 6-0 league mark.
Coach Penny Cook is excited about what this team can do as the matches get tougher in the state tournament because of its experience. “Last year we were fairly young, but we went undefeated in the conference and lost in the district,” Cook said. “Last year most of my contributors were underclassmen, I started only one senior. But this year’s team’s main nucleus is seniors.”
Those seniors are Tori Jankoska at outside hitter, Haylee Beythan at setter, Kara Kaufmann at setter, Samantha Schmidt at utility, Marissa Rogers at right-side hitter, and Jazmyne Jezowski at libero.
“This is certainly a year to make a run, because two of those seniors [Jankoska and Beythan] have been with me for three years and the others have been contributors,” Cook said. “But the program also looks good for the future because we have some very talented underclassmen.”
One of those is junior middle hitter Ashley Young, who is the area’s top blocker.
Still, Jankoska would like her team to clean up some sloppy play that has plagued the Falcons against some stronger teams that they have played on their schedule. “If we make a mistake, we sometime make another mistake on top of that,” she said. “I still think we have the talent on this team to make a run, we just need to know how to beat the good teams.”
Jankoska says her team will need to do that if it is to take one more step in the postseason. In her time on the team, the Falcons have never advanced past districts.
“That’s been my goal since I have been on this team, to make it to regionals and see what we can do there,” Jankoska said. “Last year we beat Saginaw Swan Valley in the regular season, but then I sprained my ankle and we lost to them in districts. It’s been like that.”
Cook says this year’s team may be able to combat a problem like that. “This is a deep team,” she said. “I can put any number of girls in the lineup with confidence in their ability. We have had to do that the last couple of matches – I had one senior go down with a sprained ankle, and we had others fill in.”
Cook hopes this team will make the Freeland community proud come November and the state tournament.
“Freeland takes its sports seriously,” Cook said. “Football, girls’ basketball, and now girls’ golf, they seem to rule the headlines. But we would like to think we have the team now that can compete with some of the best programs in the state.”