Dowagiac’s Kelsie Primley passes the ball Thursday night against Gull Lake. The Blue Devils swept the Chieftaind 3-0. (The Daily News/Kelly Sweeney)

By DON EDEN

Dowagiac Daily News

Wolverine Conference volleyball unbeaten Gull Lake showed their prowess by downing Dowagiac in three sets with the scores being 25-14, 25-16 and 25-4 on Thursday night.

“Dowagiac is surely going in the right direction and are 120 percent improved from last year with hustle and hard work,” commented Gull Lake 12th year coach Karyn Furlong. “This is a fun team to coach as all the girls are very athletic.”

Both of the first two games were tied at five points apiece before the relentless pressure from Gull Lake (29-7, 6-0) built a lead, which Dowagiac (3-15, 0-6) could not overcome.

Senior Katie Lorenz served the hosts first four points in the second set with junior Alyssa Fritz keeping it close four points later after a couple successful serves.

“We are a young team that is still struggling, because the girls have a lot to learn and where to be on the court,” stated first year Chieftain mentor Bill Anderson.  “This is the best we played all year and proud of how the girls played by showing a lot of heart against a superior team.”

Senior MacKenzie Kolstad and junior Shelbey Senkewitz scored nine and six points respectively with their serves in the final.  Leading the stats for the victors were sophomore Katie Schau with 27 kills, junior Michelle Ranly with nine blocks and Kolstad with ten digs.

“We are a very well balanced team with a lot of weapons, but we still need to be more consistent,” concluded Furlong.

Dowagiac did have some success with the junior varsity and freshmen contests as each went to three sets. Junior varsity scores were 26-24, 11-25 and 10-15 and the frosh got beat 13-25 before winning 25-22 with a final of 8-15.

“Gull Lake has a lot of trees and happy with how the younger teams both went to three sets,” mentioned Anderson.