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MUSKEGON — The Southwestern Michigan College volleyball team returned to the state of Michigan to play its first match against No. 9-ranked Muskegon Community College Tuesday night.

The Jayhawks, who entered the match 0-4 on the young season, showed why they earned a National Junior College Athletic Association preseason ranking by sweeping the Roadrunners 25-21, 25-15 and 25-19.

Southwestern Michigan is now 5-2 on the year with its two losses coming to No, 17-ranked Rock Valley College at last week’s Opening Weekend Tournament, and to Muskegon Community College.

Despite the loss, Roadrunner Coach Jenny Nate knows that facing teams like the Jayhawks — win or lose — will pay off down the road when SMC heads into Michigan Community College Athletic Association Western Conference play and beyond.

“We were coming off of a 5-1 weekend that OWT, which was a great start, but we know the importance of playing the highest caliber teams possible as early in the season as possible, so I’m willing to put my team to the challenge now because I know it will help us learn fast and make improvements before our conference matches start,” she said.

The Roadrunner started out well, but could not build any type of momentum after dropping the first set.

“We came out and held our own in the first set, but we were overthinking our game, and we were strategizing a bit too much when we rolled into the second set,” Nate said. “During the third set, we calmed down and started really just playing our game, came out swinging, made some defensive and offensive adjustments, and once again battled for every point, but we just couldn’t pull ahead and finish the set. Muskegon is strong and scrappy, and we will be able to learn a lot from our film study this week.”

With its home opener at the 1st Source Bank Fieldhouse set for Saturday, Nate knows her team needs to get ready to defend its home turf against Glen Oaks Community College in a non-conference match.

“We will apply what we need to work on and hit the court tomorrow [Wednesday] to prepare for Glen Oaks Saturday.”

The match is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.

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