Seniors Beach and Mach lead Jonesville volleyball to first tourney trophy of the year

JONESVILLE — Jonesville varsity volleyball and coach Sydney Barrett have already brought back some hardware to start the 2024 season thanks to some standout efforts from their senior leadership.

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The team traveled to Battle Creek Harper Creek for their first tournament of the season. After losing a close match to St. Phillip 25-23, the Comets rebounded to split with a tough Garden City Squad. The team entered the silver bracket of the tournament and won with several in-county matchups.

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They beat Camden-Frontier 25-21 and 25-16. They faced cross-county rival Hillsdale and won in three sets 25-21, 26-28 and 15-8. The finals match was against Climax Scotts, where Jonesville won with scores of 25-15 and 27-25.

"The team grew tremendously throughout the day," Barrett said. "We focused on improving each set, and we definitely did that. This is a young and new group of girls, and it was exciting to see how well they came together as a team, especially in those close sets at the end."

The tournament success was anchored by several impressive performances from the Comet seniors.

Senior Natalynn Beach had 29 kills, 28 digs and seven aces. Senior Korra Estel dropped 13 kills on her opponents. Senior Haley Mach led the way in the back row with 64 digs. Senior Carley Graves led the way with 70 total assists.

Junior Morgan Wood also impressed with 28 kills and 11 aces. Junior Payton Nichelson had nine kills. Junior Hannah Young had 14 digs. Junior Jayda Rathbun had 40 assists.

From the service line, it was a freshman who stepped up in a big role for the team. Olivia Tyler had a total of 36 points, serving 93% for the day. Tyler also added 21 digs and seven aces.

Jonesville faces their biggest test of the season when they face county rival Reading for a non-conference match on Tuesday, Sept. 3 at 7 p.m. Reading enters the matchup ranked in the state MIVCA rankings.

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This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: Seniors Beach and Mach lead Jonesville volleyball to first tourney trophy of the year