RICHLAND — The Niles varsity volleyball team finished 1-1 at The Best Of The West hosted by Gull Lake Tuesday.

The Vikings were defeated by Forest Hills Central 25-20, 25-23 and 25-22, but rebounded to defeat the host Blue Devils 25-22, 25-14 and 25-20.

Niles is now 27-13-3 overall.

“We had a lot of team errors both on defense and our blocks,” Niles coach Jenny Nate said. “We were able to hang with them despite the errors, but we couldn’t seem to pull ahead. Next, we faced Gull Lake and really worked on cleaning it up.  It has been one of our goals this year to beat them since we haven’t in the past few years.

“Gull Lake has a great defense, so we really had to nail our passes so that our setter could get our hitters set up accurately so that we could find the spots and put the ball down-which we did. Our dig stats were fantastic that match, and our hitters did a great job using Gull Lake’s block against them on our offensive attacks.”

Niles will compete in the SMAC Tournament at Gull Lake High School on Saturday. The Vikings will face Portage Northern and the Blue Devils in pool play.

 

Best of the West

At Gull Lake, Richland

Niles match scores

Forest Hills Central d. Niles 25-20, 25-23, 25-22

Niles d. Gull Lake 25-22, 25-14, 25-20

 

Niles statistics

Leading scorers

Kelsey Barton 16 points, 6 aces

Bella Rasler 16 points

Courtney Nixon 15 points, 1 ace

Holly Walker 10 points, 1 ace

Bre Love 9 points

Megan Kohler 6 points

 

Kills

Rasler 19

Jazmin Brann 19

Lexi Smith 18

Kohler 14

Barton 10

 

Blocks

Kohler 3

Barton 3

Smith 2

Rasler 2

Brann 2

Nixon 1

 

Digs

Love 40

Rasler 32

Walker 27

Nixon 23

Barton 18

 

Assists

Barton 67

 

Varsity record

Niles 27-13-3