Local Sports Journal

Spring Lake sweeps Sparta Tri

SPARTA – Spring Lake rolled into Sparta Thursday evening for a tri meet with the host Spartans and visiting White Cloud.

The Lakers left with wins against both teams.

Spring Lake defeated White Cloud 25-16, 25-20, and Sparta 25-17, 25-21 to improve to 32-7-2 overall.

“Our passing was much better tonight in serve, receive and defense,” said Spring Lake head coach Sarah Bulthuis. “Defensively as a team we kept the ball in play and had many saves.”

Libero senior Rachel Pennington led the team with 28 digs. She also finished with 28 digs and nine points.

“(Pennington) is playing really well and covers a lot of territory,” said Hulthuis. “She also a very consistent server.”

She added, “We beat two good teams.”

Kelsee Zuidema led the Lakers with 21 kills, 18 digs, three aces, six points and four blocks, while Courtney Kyser finished with 15 kills, three blocks, six points and two aces, and Lydia Suchecki had seven kills, 16 points and three aces.

Karley Engelsman had 49 assists, 12 points, an ace, and 10 digs for Spring Lake, and Maya Denslow added 11 digs.

Holton tri cut to a dual with Fremont Providence closure

HOLTON – What was planned Thursday to be a tri-match at Holton between the Red Devils, Wellspring Preparatory High School and Fremont Providence became just a dual when the latter ceased operations last mouth.

Eitherway, the Red Devils downed the Wolves in four games, 14-25, 25-19, 25-23, 25-16.

Rachel Younts paced Holton with 14 kills, eight points, two aces, and 19 digs, with Jacki Stone contributing 12 kills and 14 digs, and Shelby Younts totaling 37 assists and 12 digs.

Katie Wildfong added nine points and an ace for the Red Devils.

Wyoming Lee no match for Kent City

The Kent City Eagles made quick work Thursday of OK Silver Conference rival Wyoming Lee, defeating the Rebels 25-12, 25-6, 25-16.

Kayleigh Hartley paced the Eagles with 14 points, six aces and 15 assists, with Kassidy Heeringa totaling nine points, three aces, eight assists and two blocks, and Brandi Boehm finished with nine points, an ace and seven kills for Kent City.

Teammate Justine Wolter totaled 10 points, an ace, and eight kills, while Olivia Harrison finished with two blocks and seven kills. Kelsey Krueger had 10 points and three aces, and Ellie Meyers finished with 15 digs.

Kent City improves to 20-10 overall.

Muskegon falls to Zeeland East in three games

The Muskegon Big Red volleyball team played with a short bench Thursday, falling to OK Black Conference foe Zeeland East in three games, 25-12, 25-7, 25-11.

Playing without team captain Kierra Guy (foot) and leading scorer Laydee Spencer (illness), Muskegon struggled with the Chix, though Big Red head coach Greg Roberts said he was proud of his squad.

“In spite of the score,” said Roberts, “(I) was pleased with how the girls dug deep and competed.  All year long we said that we wanted to compete and we did. We didn’t roll over and play dead. The girls dug deep and had good team chemistry.”