Trojans score two recent conference wins.
By Mike Miazga
Correspondent
The Timothy Christian girls volleyball team has piled plenty of match action into a short amount of time.
“We’ve been very busy,” said Timothy coach Scott Piersma late last week. “We gave the girls some time away. They need it.”
In recent action, the Trojans defeated Illiana Christian, lost to conference rival Chicago Christian and went 2-3 at the Manteno tournament before racking up a pair of conference wins last week.
Timothy struggled in the first set against Illiana before turning things up a notch. “We struggled to get things going in the first set. We were coming off a long bus ride to Illiana,” Piersma said. “It was 20-20 in the first set and then we went on a 5-1 run to close the first set. We came out hot the second set and dominated and won 25-16. That was nice to see.”
The Trojans then lost to Chicago Christian in a battle of the top two teams in the Metro Suburban Conference Red Division.
“Chicago Christian is a very good team,” said Piersma. “They are big and very powerful. We played a little scared in the first set. They had some big kills coming down against us that we haven’t seen a lot of yet this year.”
Timothy lost the first set 25-14 but Piersma made a lineup adjustment that led to a 25-16 second-set win.
“We moved Heidi Westra out of the middle and to the outside. I think she had seven kills alone in the second set,” he said. “We dominated and I think that took them back a little bit. But in the third set Chicago Christian made a couple of adjustments and we got in a bad funk and lost 25-10. It was a little frustrating because we played so well in that second set. And then we came out in the third and didn’t play well. The consolation to all this is Tracy Westra (Timothy setter) didn’t play (recovering from injury). We’re going to look completely different the next time we face them. We lost in three without Tracy, which is a little bit of a confidence boost.”
Timothy then went 2-3 at Manteno. “It was the end of a long week and it was a long day there,” said Piersma. “We left at 6:15 in the morning and had an 8 a.m. match.”
Tracy Westra did see limited action in the tournament. “It was good seeing her back playing,” said Piersma. “I don’t know if the girls expected things to fall into place because Tracy was back? We won our first two matches and then didn’t play well.”
Timothy faced Illiana Christian in the third/fourth place match and lost after a strong performance against them earlier in the week.
“It was a frustrating day overall,” said Piersma. “We didn’t get back to school until 6:15 p.m. It was a long 12-hour day for the girls. We went 2-3 at Manteno and did the same thing at St. Viator. We haven’t gone 2-3 in a tournament in a long time. We weren’t used to that.”
Piersma said the team continues to search for a go-to player in critical situations. “We’re still figuring some stuff out,” he said. “In that third set against Illiana, it was 13-13 and we’re playing to 15. We’re in a timeout and I asked who wants to put the ball on the floor and nobody said anything. That’s what we’re missing right now. Nobody wants to be the go-to person and put it on their shoulders. We’re going to figure that out.”
The Trojans got back on the winning track with recent MSC Red wins against Ridgewood and Guerin Prep.
The Ridgewood match marked the first sporting event in Timothy Christian’s new competition arena on campus.
In the 25-18, 25-21 win, Tracy Westra had 10 assists and three kills. Rachel Stoll had six assists and two kills. Heidi Westra had eight kills and three digs. Olivia Schuringa had three kills and two aces, while Abygale Ahn had six digs and two aces.
In a 25-11, 25-15 win over Guerin Prep, Tracy Westra had 13 assists, three kills and five aces. Stoll had six kills, two aces and three blocks. Emily DeBoer had four kills and two blocks, while Ahn had four digs and two aces.
The win pushed Timothy to 16-9 overall and 7-1 in MSC Red play.
“It was exciting being the first match in the new gym,” said Piersma. “The girls were very excited for that. We didn’t play our best against Ridgewood, but that’s understandable given the jitters of being the first match in the new gym. We played a lot better against Guerin Prep.”
Timothy played Elmwood Park at home earlier this week and will head to Elgin today to play St. Edward.
“St. Edward played really well against us at our place,” Piersma noted. “The competed the whole match. With this match, it’s going to be another long bus trip to Elgin. St. Edward is a key match. We will not take them lightly. We have to beat them and beat the other teams on the schedule if we want it to where Chicago Christian comes to our place and we still have one loss in conference. That way if we beat Chicago Christian we share the conference title. If we have two losses when they come to our place, we can’t win the conference title. We’re taking nobody lightly.”
