EDWARDSBURG — Minutes after her team fell to Vicksburg, 25-19, 25-23, 25-22, first-year Edwardsburg volleyball coach Chrissy Breisch met with her players in the left corner of the Edwardsburg High School gymnasium.

During the short meeting Breisch, who graduated from Edwardsburg in 2007 and was a four-year varsity player on the volleyball team, had a message for her young team.

“No unforced errors,” said Breisch when asked about her postgame huddle. “We had too many of those. There are key times when we need people to step up and they’re are not doing it. That’s what we need out of young team.”

Breisch watched and kept calm as her team stayed close in all three games, but was unable to sustain strong play. The Eddies have only four players back from last year’s varsity squad and no seniors. Breisch called five time-outs during the match in an attempt to regroup her team.

“I really like the group of girls I’m working with right now,” Breisch said. “We need to stay positive and bring energy to every match. They lose (energy) and they think the world is over when they shank a pass. It’s volleyball and the match isn’t over. They need to get through that.”

Game one was tied at 14 when Vicksburg went on a 6-0 run to take control of the opening game. Tara Gloystein’s kill clinched game one for the Bulldogs.

In game two, the Eddies put together a furious rally and scored nine straight points to tie the game at 23. The rally then ended for Edwardsburg as Vicksburg scored the final two points of the game with the final point coming on a service ace from Olivia Welch.

Edwardsburg rode the momentum at the end of game two into the third game as the Eddies jumped out to a 15-10 lead. But Edwardsburg failed to produce clutch points at the finish as Vicksburg rallied to win the game and the match. An Eddies service error was the final point of the match.

“We had missed serves at key times,” Breisch said.

Edwardsburg, which was playing its first Wolverine Conference volleyball match, finished the match with nine service errors.

Breisch was particularly frustrated by the outcome in game two and game three.

“I thought we could steal the last two (games),” Breisch said. “Those were ours.”

Alexis Blake, who’s the lone returning starter from last year’s team, had seven kill to lead the Eddies offensively. Blake was asked about dealing with the lack of experience on this year’s team.

“It’s hard, but we push through it and try our hardest,” said Blake. “We have to fix things up that we messed up on tonight and work on them in practice and get ready for the next game.”

Edwardsburg got 19 assists from freshman setter Payton Szlanfucht.

 

Vicksburg d. Edwardsburg 3-0

Statistics

Kills: Alexis Blake (E) 7, Madison Hatkevich (E) 4, Olivia Welch (V) 5, Logan Nabozny (V) 4, Tara Gloystein (V) 3.

Blocks: Payton Szlanfucht (E) 1, Blake (E) 1, Shannon Scott (V) 3, Nabozny (V) 2, .

Assists: Szlanfucht (E) 19, Alex Oswalt (V) 14.

Aces: Szlanfucht (E) 2, Bri Nemeth (E) 2, Lindsay Nunez (E) 2, Hatkevich (E) 1, Catie Razzano (E) 1, Nabozny (V) 3, Alyssa Long (V) 3.

Digs: Kaylee Riker (E) 6, Nemeth (E) 5, Hatkevich (E) 3, Nunez (E) 3, Welch (V) 9, Michaela Oesterle (V) 6, Logan Vanderbos (V) 6