The last time the Lady Norsemen stepped on the court during the season, it was on Doug Collins Court at Redbird Arena where they hoisted a large first place trophy into the air. However, that was last season and this season is brand new, including several new faces. The Lady Norsemen welcome Morgan Long, Bella Marlo, Kaitlyn Hatteberg, and starter, 5'11" middle-hitter, KJ Friestad. After losing a handful of starters to high school graduation, Coach Tonya Grayson reorganized the team. Besides Friestad at middle, Taylor Christian (Jr) has taken the key role as setter (replacing future Newark Hall-of-famer and record-holder, Olivia Nelson). Naomi Sweeney (Sr-Captain) switched her role as a defensive specialist (DS) to a right-side hitter (R) and DS. Cassiday Adams (Jr) will continue her role as DS, Meggie Scott (SR-Captain) will continue as libero, where she holds the season record for digs, while Megan Williams (So) will still be hitting from the outside. Mattie Chapman (Sr-Captain) will be in the front row again blocking in the middle where she currently holds the all-time and season records for blocks. Madi Malone (Jr-Captain) will also be in her same positions, playing all the way around. Malone has broke the season record in kills each year in her first two years, while holding the all-time career record by a far margain. After a quick nod to the 2018 season, which included a standing ovation, the starting lineups were announced. The first set went back and forth with an eventual tie at 20-20. Eventually, the Lady Norsemen's serving prevailed, winning 25-22 against the 1-0 Crusaders of Marquette. That set up a highly anticipated second set. The crowd was huge. One fan reported not being able to find a parking spot at the high school, grade school, or a nearby road. With the student body cheering against each other, the Lady Norsemen started getting into a rhythm and started pulling the Crusaders out of system. Behind 12 kills by Malone, our Papa John's Player of the Game, the girls from Newark started running away with the second-set after a 10-1 run. Williams also added 5 kills along with an amazing foot-dig which led to an eventual kill. Megan added 3 aces to her stat line to lead the Norsemen. Christian ended with 14 assists in her first varsity start in her career. Scott pulled up a team-high 15 digs, while Sweeney added 8. Chapman and Friestad both pounded down 3 kills to eventually seal the two-set win (25-22, 25-14). Click here to see game stats THIS GAME WAS BROUGHT TO YOU IN PART BY Comments are closed.
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