Chieftains top Allegan

Published 8:22 am Monday, September 16, 2019

ALLEGAN — The goal heading to Allegan for its second Wolverine Conference match was simple. All coach Tony Hooley wanted was to see some improvement and come away with a win that would square Dowagiac’s conference record at 1-1.

Mission accomplished.

The Chieftains defeated the Tigers 3-1 by winning 25-19, 25-15, 23-25 and 25-14.

Hooley was happy with how his team played.

“We had one of the most efficient offensive matches I have experienced,” he said. “The ladies, as a team, had a kill efficiency of 45 percent, well above our average. We also had one of our best nights at the service line, which is a big deceptive because we made half of our serving errors in the first part of the second set. The other half of the errors were spread out over three and a half sets.”

Jessie Hulett, Megan Davis and Anna Dobberstein served 51 times in the match with only one error between them, according to Hooley.

As well as things went on the offensive side of the match, Hooley was disappointed with Dowagiac (8-5) in two key areas.

“We are still struggling in our ball control and had zero blocks in four sets,” he said. “We must improve on both if we are to be competitive with the stronger teams on our schedule.”

At the net, Megan Davis, Allie Conner, Nicole Whan, Riley Stack and Jenna Davis combined for 44 kills. Megan Davis and Conner both finished the night with 10 kills, while Whan had nine to go along with eight digs and 41 assists.

Stack had eight kills. Davis had seven kills in the match.

“Jenna Davis, coming off serious hand injuries in the offseason, is starting to get back into form,” Hooley said.