Reeths-Puffer had an encouraging showing in Friday's season-opening Coopersville Invitational, going 3-3.
The Rockets alternated wins and losses throughout the day. They defeated Coopersville (25-19, 25-17), Oakridge (25-14, 25-4) and Ludington (25-23, 25-22), losing to Fruitport (26-24, 25-20) and to Otsego twice (25-15, 25-15 and 25-15, 25-16). The Ludington win and second Otsego defeat occurred in Gold bracket play.
One big reason the performance heartened coach Justin Birr was his team's ability to adjust. R-P lost Peyton Radel to a minor injury this week, so had to tweak the lineup it had been working with and move Makayla Disselkoen from outside hitter back to the middle hitter spot she played a year ago. That left less experienced Annabelle Darke and Lexie Danz in the outside hitter positions. Both had solid days; Danz had 20 kills and 27 digs, with eight aces, and Darke posted 18 kills and 32 digs.
"I am very, very proud of our collective effort as a team today," Birr said. "We had several girls playing varsity volleyball for the first time, and it never showed. We played well as a team and had relentless effort all day."
The win over Coopersville was the first for R-P in Birr's head coaching tenure, which provided a big early boost. After struggles against Fruitport, a dominant showing against Oakridge followed.
Setter Kate Tindall had a very strong day, leading the team with 39 digs and 81 assists. Carlee Bowen added 63 digs at libero.
"The Coopersville Invite is always a competitive invite, and this year was no different," Birr said. "The difference is we showed we can beat a few good teams and we showed our compete level all day."
