By Maddie Karr
The Silver Lake Mustangs took on the Kenesaw Blue Devils in an afternoon of volleyball in Kenesaw on September 20th. The junior high girls started off the afternoon with the B team girls playing. They battled the first set and won it 25-18. In the next set they came out with intensity but after a close set, they lost it 25-27. The girls struggled with serving but still fought hard. It wasn’t enough to pull out the win, so the Mustangs headed into the third set. Kenesaw took the win by winning 12-15. Next, the A team played. The junior high Lady Mustangs worked hard but didn’t pull off the win, losing the first set 8-25 and the second set 5-25. Coach Morgan Henkel was still very impressed with the way the girls played and thought that they have shown much improvement since the beginning of the season. “We have improved tremendously with our serves since the beginning of the season. We used to miss 15-16 serves, but we have lowered that number to about 10-11 each game. We still have a lot to improve on but the girls work hard and show up every day for practice ready to get better,” says Henkel.
After junior high finished their games, the high school girls came out onto the court with a lot of momentum and energy. JV played first and took the Blue Devils in 3 sets. Varisty came out strong hoping to follow the winning lead of the JV and won the first set 25-17. Kenesaw didn’t let up though and came out looking for revenge in the second set. The Lady Mustangs pushed hard, but after a tough set, Kenesaw took the 2nd set 25-23. Silver Lake had a little trouble getting the momentum back and lost the third set 19-25. The Mustangs didn’t give up there though. The girls kept fighting and it paid off in the fourth set, which the Mustangs took 25-7. The fifth set wasn’t an easy one. Both teams went head-to-head and the game continued to go back and forth. Finally, the Blue Devils come out on top, 16-14. Even though it was a tough loss for the Mustangs, the girls played very well. Senior Georgi TenBensel led the team in hitting with 21 kills. tenBensel earned her 1000th career kill during the match. She is the only Silver Lake player to ever achieve that feat. Junior Sydney Bartels stepped up in serving with 5 aces. Freshman Sophie Schmidt had a total of 27 digs. Bartels thought that “It was a tough game. Even though we lost, the team played well. We have all improved individually and as a team, so hopefully, we can play them again and come back stronger to get a win.”