GREEN WAVE: Manistique Volleyball Starts Strong

Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos, and to hear post-game comments from Coach Amy Nixon, and seniors Ella Schuetter and Emma Jones.

GLADSTONE---The Manistique High School volleyball team followed up a strong performance in last week's Kingsford Invitational with an easy 3-0 win over the Gladstone Braves Tuesday night in Gladstone. The scores were 25-8, 25-15, and 25-21.

"We're 4-1 right now and our only loss was in (Kingsford) tournament play, so we're off to a great start," Manistique Coach Amy Nixon said. "I have a couple of seniors who have been on the team since they were freshmen, and a junior who's been on the team now for three years, so we do have quite the mix of veteran and experience, and then a lot of upcoming athletes as well who are really contributing, too."

It's early in the season, but Nixon says she's enjoying coaching this group of girls.

"It's a blast," she said. "These kids come in every day ready to work, excited about volleyball, and that makes my job easy."

Two of those seniors that Nixon mentioned, Ella Schuetter and Emma Jones, both say they are ready to be leaders and go out with a bang in their final season in the Green and White.

"I think we were expecting more of a building year because half our team right now has not had experience with a varsity team," Schuetter said. "But, I am so pleasantly surprised. I think we're playing extremely well, our team chemistry is really good, and we're really starting to reach our potential. So, I'm proud of how we've started."

"I feel really good and we've got off to a great start," Jones said. "We're really sticking to our guns and doing some good practices. It was good (the Kingsford Invitational last week) because it's a long day of playing, and it gets us in shape for those later matches."

And playimh a team like Gladstone, which struggled in recent years, but did push the Emeralds in Tuesday night's third set?

"We always say that we need to lock in, back to our base, and stick to what we wabt to do," Jones said. "Play our game, and never let the temp of the game change."

"You just have to take it point by point because you never know what might happen," Schuetter said of playing Gladstone. "We had to stay locked in and focused, play our game, and do what we can do."

Nixon, who has seen a lot of battles with Gladstone over the years, also took nothing for granted in Tuesday night's match.

"I know Gladstone's been improving this year," Nixon said. "We were excited to come in and play them. I think we did well."

TUESDAY'S OTHER U.P. VOLLEYBALL SCORES

Bark River-Harris swept Carney- Nadeau, 3-0, by scores of 25-19, 25-21, 25-20.
Negaunee swept Iron Mountain, 3-0, by scores of 25-13, 25-18, 25-17
Marquette swept Menominee, 3-0, by scores of 25-17, 25-15, 25-13.
Hancock swept Chassell, 3-0, by scores of 25-12, 25-14, 25-14.

Painesdale-Jeffers 3, Lake Linden-Hubbell 0
Ironwood 3, Bessemer 0