GREENFIELD — The Greenfield-Central volleyball team is 7-for-7.
With a 3-0 sweep over visiting Richmond Wednesday, the Cougars, under first-year head coach Candice Wyatt, are 7-0.
Wednesday’s sweep wasn’t unusual. In the team’s seven matches, G-C has won 18 of 19 sets.
“I’m super-excited. We’ve beat teams I wasn’t expecting to beat,” Wyatt said of the 7-0 start. “We’ve got such a well-rounded team and don’t have just one go-to hitter. All of our hitters are go-to hitters. All of them can get a kill. They are all at that elite level.
“Coming in, I knew they’ve had a bunch of different coaches over the last few years. I just wanted something consistent and I wanted to show them I was here to support them and help them as much as I can. They’ve responded really well. They’re all great, no attitudes. I tell them all the time, ‘You guys play like you trust each other and you play together.’ They love that and feed off that.”
The Cougars won by set scores of 25-5, 25-20, 25-19.
In the opening set, they won 16 straight points off the serve of sophomore defensive specialist Addison Blomberg. It included five service aces. Senior outside hitter Mya Grigsby had, unofficially, six first-set kills and a team-best 11 kills for the match.
As Wyatt said she’s got a lot of girls that can finish attacks, junior middle hitter Madison Sonsini had nine kills, eight in the final two sets. The 6-footer also had three blocks, including two solos.
Tuesday’s outcome may have been the norm for the team, but it hardly felt that way for Sonsini.
She moved from Richmond to Greenfield in late July. Plus, she had recently missed time due to an injury and was cleared just in time to compete against her former team and a lot of close friends.
“(This match) meant everything to me,” Sonsini said. “I’m still friends with a lot of them. Before the game I was locked in and couldn’t talk to them, but after the game, it’s still love at the end of the day.
“When I got on the court at first, I was a little emotional. I was nervous. I didn’t want to mess up. They still mean everything to me and not having a Richmond Red Devil jersey on was different, but putting on a Greenfield jersey felt even better tonight.”
The Cougars are still not at full strength. Sonsini returned, but the team’s other starting middle hitter, Harper Holden was out with an injury. Senior Katie Muegge, usually a right-side hitter, stepped in to play the middle. She had six kills, two in each set.
Outside hitter Rilee Roland had five kills and freshman Alexis Muegge had four. Roland added three service aces and Grigsby recorded four.
“We let loose for a little bit (in the second and third sets), but we got it back,” Grigsby added on the team’s performance.
After the first-set run on Blomberg’s serve, Greenfield-Central led 22-2.
Richmond was more competitive in the second set, but the Cougars were still in control. Sonsini scored back-to-back points, one on a block, the other on a kill, to stretch an early lead to 10-5. Grigsby followed with a pair of service aces and a kill to give G-C a 13-5 lead. The Red Devils went on a late 4-0 run to cut it to 24-20 before a service error ended the set.
There were six ties in the third before G-C began to take command.
A service ace from Roland gave the Cougars an 11-9 lead. A couple of points later, a long rally ended in a kill from Alexis Muegge. Grigsby followed with another kill and when libero Finnley Greene recorded a service ace, the Cougars lead grew to 16-10.
The Cougars are back in action today at Eastern Hancock.
