Sarah Devereaux
| inSide Drumheller
The DVSS senior girls Dynos volleyball team had a good ending to the month. 
The team travelled to Trochu on Wednesday evening and for the first time this season, won their first game 25-16.
“The girls played awesome. Defensively they were blocking solid. Nikki Thomson had great blocks and so did Brayden Peters. We served amazingly. There was a lot of serving runs from Peters with a run of three, Rachel Graf had a run of three and Payton Zacharuk had a run of five,” said head coach Erica Crocker.
Crocker said Trochu won the next game 25-16 and noted that Trochu came out with aggression for that game.
“We had some really long rallies. Offensively, Thomson, Samantha Hirsch and Karis Hilchey were making kills. (We had) really smart plays from our setters making effective dumps and scoring points in that regard,” Crocker said.
In the next set, the two teams played a deciding match to 15 but took an unfortunate loss of 15-10.
“We had some amazing plays by Mikaela Koustrup. Her defense (and offense) were great. Our libero is Makenna Lutz and she was performing amazing passes all night. She was digging dimes, she was passing and she was (also) swinging and making points,” she said.
Crocker also noted that Samantha Ptashnik had two aces and long runs of serves throughout the game.
“I was so proud of them. I really wished I had taped their first game to see the contrast between where they are now and where they were. It is just phenomenal. I am super proud of them. They are staying together as a team. It is the dynamic that these girls have. You can’t coach that. It is awesome that they are always there for each other and they are always smiling with each other. They have come a long way,” Crocker told inSide Drumheller.
Over the past weekend (October 23 and 24) the team travelled to Trochu for a tournament. Trochu won the tournament, with Olds coming in second and DVSS coming in third in their pool. On October 21 the team hosted Prairie Christian Academy and took a loss.
Over the weekend of October 16 and 17 the team travelled to Airdrie for Kodiak Klassic. Crocker said although the team didn’t place for a medal, she was proud of how they played.
“We saw some highly skilled, very tall girls play some volleyball. We put up an amazing fight… that was some volleyball those girls had yet to be exposed to as a team this year,” Crocker said.
As part of the tournament, each of the teams were asked to participate in a food drive. Of the about 600 food items donated, Crocker said the senior girls dynos team donated 148 items. Thomson was voted by the team as all star for the tournament.
The team will now travel to Three Hills on Wednesday, November 4.
