Oct. 6—GRAND HAVEN TWP. — Back playing at home for the first time in almost a month, Grand Haven volleyball was ready to give its fans something to cheer about.
Instead, it was an unhappy homecoming for the Buccaneers, who were shorthanded and short on spirit in the final moments of a four-set defeat against Caledonia.
The Buccaneers won the opening set, but couldn't sustain that momentum in a 23-25, 25-15, 25-13, 25-19 defeat against the Scots.
"We weren't quite good enough to get the job done," coach Aaron Smaka said. "We had a few kids out tonight and we have people trying to step up in different roles, and we look at that as getting kids a lot of experience tonight that they didn't have before."
Missing five players on the night, Grand Haven showed plenty of good effort to take the first set and keep the Scots' defense guessing.
Molly Long and Izzy Whittaker were the main targets on offense, and both led the team in kills, Whittaker picking up 14 and Long adding 10. It was a block from Alena Whittaker and a kill from Jillian Swierbut that swung the set Grand Haven's way, even after Caledonia could have tied things with the final point.
"It's been a little uncomfortable, but we're still proud of how it's turning out," Long said. "Some of these girls were brought into a difficult situation, and they're still trying their best and learning."
Another strong set had Grand Haven thinking of a positive result, but things unraveled in the middle sets. The Bucs struggled to deal with the serve of junior Avery Palmateer — nothing too fast, just well placed to give the Grand Haven backline some trouble.
"It's been about that first contact for us," Izzy Whittaker said. "If we can get in system, it'll look a lot better."
The Bucs led 12-9 in the second set, but quickly fell behind 21-13 after struggling to control the ball. That extra momentum made the rest of the set a procession. Even another good Grand Haven start in the third set quickly gave way to trouble, as a few hitting errors crept in alongside the struggles on defense.
Tied at 6 in the early stages, the fourth set quickly went Caledonia's way thanks to a 10-2 run, and more Buccaneer errors gave the Scots plenty of breathing room.
"Right now, it feels like we have a little bit of a mental block," Long said. "If we can get out of that foggy area, we can start killing some points and staying in sets."
There was some late fight in the fourth set, which could have easily gone Grand Haven's way. Trailing 18-9, the Bucs went on a 9-4 run of their own, and even cut the lead to four after an Izzy Whittaker ace. Caledonia held its nerve and closed the match out to hand Grand Haven a seventh straight defeat.
"It's been tricky," Whittaker said of the recent run. "Our whole team has been really positive about it, no one's been getting down about it and we've tried to power through it."
The hope is that after dressing just four upperclassmen on Tuesday, the Bucs can rebound with a full lineup in the coming weeks.
"There are spurts when I feel like we're playing really good volleyball," Smaka said. "We're looking forward to getting our kids back and start to feel a little better about ourselves."
It won't get much easier in Thursday's home matchup against Rockford, but they'll have matches in Mona Shores on Saturday to work the returners into the rotation. Thursday's match is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
You can email Kyle at kturk@grandhaventribune.com or find him on Twitter @KyleTurkGHT.
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