The  2022 R-P volleyball team

The eight seniors on the Reeths-Puffer volleyball team did not go down without a fight.

The Rockets had a huge challenge on Wednesday, opening up Division 1 district tournament play against Mona Shores, a powerful squad that recently won the O-K Green conference tournament.

Mona Shores went in as the heavy favorite and emerged with a victory on its home court by scores of 25-12, 25-19, 25-19.

The Sailors moved on to Thursday’s district championship match while the Rockets closed their season with a 14-23-2 record.

The silver lining is that the Rockets left everything they had on the court and continued to battle for all three sets, despite the bad loss in the first set.

R-P's Lauren Nelson returns a shot. 

That meant a lot to R-P Coach Justin Birr.

“That second and third set, we played pretty good volleyball,” he said. “We were definitely resilient. The seniors led the way. They came in with their game faces.

“I think we were a little too amped up in set one. Once we settled in we played a lot better volleyball.”

The sad part is that the loss ended the high school volleyball careers for the big group of Reeths-Puffer seniors who have worked hard within the program for many years.

Playing their final match on Wednesday were seniors Lauren Nelson, Madisyn Dykema, Billie Tryska, Sophia Corradin, Sophia Hekkema, Malaina Peterson, Lauren Kleynenberg and Jillian Singleton.

Reeths-Puffer coach Justin Birr watches the action. 

“They’ve had a huge impact when it comes to the legacy they left,” Birr said. “They will be missed.”

The coach noted that with so many seniors leaving, next year’s team will be much different.

“There will be a little different look and feel next year,” he said. “There will be different challenges for me as a coach. I’m looking forward to it.”

The Rockets grabbed a quick 3-1 lead in the first set but ended up playing catch-up the rest of the evening.

The Sailors built a 15-5 lead in the first set, R-P clawed back to within 18-11, then Mona Shores finished off the set by winning eight of the last nine points.

R-P's Madisyn Dykema taps a ball back over the net. 

Mona Shores jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead in the second set, then the Rockets rallied to tie the score 8-8 on a serve by Megan Barmes that hit the top of the net and trickled over and dropped on the Sailor side.

Mona Shores quickly regained the lead, but the Rockets hung around for most of the set and pulled within four points three times – 21-17, 22-18 and 23-19, before surrendering the last two points.

The final set was similar, with Mona Shores jumping out to a 6-1 lead and R-P battling back and trying to keep its season alive.

The Rockets cut their deficit to 21-15, but the Sailors finally finished off the set and match with an ace and a kill by Grace Allen.

The Rockets talk strategy in between sets. 

Hekkema had seven kills for the Rockets and Dykema added five.

Defensively, Tryska and Nelson had five and four blocks, respectively, while Nelson also had eight digs.

The season did not go quite as well as the Rockets had hoped, particularly after they suffered several key midseason injuries.

“There were some games we should have won, but we also competed very hard against some very good teams,” Coach Birr said. “I think our seniors had a lot to do with that.

“The injury bug definitely bit us a little bit. Who knows what it would have been like if we would have had a solid rotation.”