By John Raffel
Valley Lutheran’s volleyball team ended its season with a 32-20-4 record under coach Jon Frank.
The season ended with a regional final loss to Unionville-Sebewaing in five games.
“We played well in the first game,” Frank said. “We were up 23-19, and they scored six straight points to take that game. We controlled the set. That’s where the night was lost. I told the girls if we take Erica Treiber to five games, advantage goes to USA. The big marquee players like that have a tendency to step up. That’s what happened.
“We got crushed the second game, 25-13. We were down 9-0 the third game, and I called a timeout. I didn’t want the girls, with such a great season, to have it end like this. We really kind of fell apart, but I’ll give them credit. They came back and won that game and won the fourth game. We kind of hammered it out. We weren’t playing pure volleyball, but neither was USA. The fifth game, it’s a short game and anything can happen.”
It wasn’t the result Valley Lutheran wanted. “We felt we had more pieces to the puzzle than USA,” Frank said. “They had good role players and a top 10 finalist for Miss Volleyball, Erica Treiber, and she had 38 kills. That’s what some girls have in a tournament on a good day.”
Frank said his team faced the toughest schedule he’s ever played. “We had a great year,” he said. “Out of all our games, we rarely played a Class D school outside of our conference. I lined up tough tournaments for a reason, so we can be prepared. We were playing our best volleyball in the last month. We were pretty much beating all the area teams. We felt that we were rolling. We swept though districts without losing a set. We were conference and district champs.
“There was a lot these girls accomplished. The other thing we wanted to do is go to Battle Creek. We ended up short.”
Making first team all-conference for Valley Lutheran were Emily Peruski, who had 30 digs against USA; Amy Peck, who had 38 assists, eight digs, and six kills; and Kelsey Hackman, who had six kills. They all made all-region, as well.
Second team all-league was Alisha Schuman, who had nine kills and 21 digs against USA. Honorable mention performers were Addie Pickelman, who had 19 kills and 29 digs against USA, and Gabrielle Neuman, who added eight kills and 19 digs.