RAPID RIVER- On October 23rd, the Rapid River Rockets took the victory against the Mid Peninsula Wolverines in straight sets here Thursday.

​SET 1: In set one, the Wolverines had the first serve. Senior Hope Brunngraeber had a total of four points off serves, with two of them being aces. To end this streak of serves, Junior Saylor Carlson got a kill, which gave Rapid River their first point of the night, putting the score 1-4. Junior Payton Latvala for the Wolverines had two points made from serves, keeping the Wolverines further in the lead, 1-7. For Rapid River’s turn of serve, Junior Saylor Carlson served for three, getting one ace in the process, making the score 5-8. Senior Aubrey Olson had two successful consecutive tips. Junior Donna McDonald got the kill, making the score 17-18. Then Junior Maycee Kuhlman accumulated two points before returning the serve to the Wolverines, which was one of their last chances. Junior Donna McDonald made three points, leaving the score 24-20. The cost of this match was a service error, which allowed the Rockets to push through the next 2 sets.

SET 2: At the beginning of the second set, the Rockets hit a minor slump, allowing Mid Peninsula to pull ahead with a score of 4-8 up until Junior Maycee Kuhlman came in with four service aces, making the score 12-8. Rapid River and Mid Peninsula had a close game from here on out, as it was a lot of back and forth between serves. Once the score hit 14-14, Rapid River dug deep to finish out the set 25-17.

SET 3: For this final set of the night, Senior Hope Brunngraeber had a streak of 6 serves, leaving the score 0-6. Though the Rockets quickly caught up as junior Kinsley Damon brought in two points, then junior Saylor Carlson had a serve streak of 4, tying the game up 8-8. Sophomore Madelyne Lofquist for the Wolverines had a serve streak of four, with two of those being aces, shortly after junior Abbigale Klee had a serve streak of 6, setting the score to 10-20. Then Donna McDonald for Rapid came in trying to close the gap with a serve streak of five; the score is now 16-21. Mid Pen lost serve, which then gave it to Junior Liveah Wils, who had 5 consecutive serves, which closed the gap with a tie of 22-22. Senior Aubrey Olson with the kill that then pushes her back behind the line for the game-winning serves on senior night.

Post-game, when Coach Katrina McNamara was asked about the team’s performance, she responded with “You know, being Aubrey’s last night, like I really wanted to utilize her in different ways, so we had her in the back row, in the front row. So I was really proud of that. Our digs tonight were awesome. These guys were picking everything up. We’ve had 13, 15, and 21 digs in those games. That’s huge. So, I feel like our defense was fantastic tonight.”

How they adjusted to challenges: “We adjusted very well tonight. I was really proud of everybody and how they came together. This is our first time getting it in three games, so we’ve really, really rallied and we fought for every point.”

The Rockets were led by Donna McDonald, our outside hitter. She had six kills. You know, a bunch of digs, good serve receive, and then coming in clutch with Macee Kuhlman with five service aces just in the second game alone. So, she had eight aces for the night.