Posted by Matt Wenzel, Manistee News Advocate
ONEKAMA — For the first time of the season, Onekama got to play a home match.

And, Grand Traverse Academy came at the Portagers in more ways than one as the Mustangs rolled to a quick win on Tuesday night, 25-10, 25-9, 25-7.

“I think that probably the biggest thing is the lack of aggressiveness,” Onekama coach Sherri Slater said of her team. “They pretty much had their way with us because we were constantly backing away from them.”

Coming off a three-game win in its first dual match of the season at Baldwin on Thursday, Onekama never really got going against the Mustangs.

The Portagers dug a 9-0 hole right off the bat and gave up long runs to GTA each game.

“They don’t seem to have a lot of confidence in themselves,” Slater said, “and they should.”

As a team, Onekama served at 89 percent, which was solid. But, the Portagers were just 24-for-26.

“You need that much to win one game of a match,” Slater said. “That’s good serving, but is it tough serving?”

Kelly Koon served at 100 percent with a pair of aces and three kills for the Portagers. Alexis Tribfelner had four kills, Anna Brown was perfect at the service line with an ace, nine assists and two kills and Kaylan Fitch had three kills. Slater was impressed with how her team responded to a new system that was implemented just two days ago.

“That is a good thing I took away from this,” she said. “It’s very complicated, it’s totally different than what we’ve been doing and they knew where they were going. But, now that you know where you’re going, you’ve got to play that position.

“They had no problem getting to the correct position, but they’ve got to take that position and make it theirs. Everybody is kind of waiting for somebody else to do the job for them and you have to go out there hoping the ball comes to you, instead of wondering who’s going to take it.”

GTA used a pair of nine-point runs to to win the first game 25-10, but Onekama came out ready in the second game. The Portagers took their first lead of the match and held the advantage until a 7-7 tie was broken. Shortly after, the Mustangs rattled off nine straight points and closed the match with seven more unanswered.

“Everything is great when your team is winning, everybody is happy with each other and you seem to feed off that and play better,” Slater said. “But when they get a run of say five, then it gets to 10 points and you’re back where you started from. They just have to learn to push through that.”

Slater said she’s pleased with the team’s overall attitude, but there’s not much that can be done about the lack of height. GTA used that to its advantage and dominated at the net.

“We are size challenged,” Slater said. “That’s another thing we’re going to have to work on. They’re going to block balls on us. How are we supposed to react to that on the court instead of letting it drop?”

The Mustangs JV team beat Onekama, 25-5, 25-18.