On Friday, September 30th, the Sunapee Volleyball Team had a home match against Prospect Mountain High School. This was the first Homecoming event  in a weekend full of Sunapee Athletics. This match saw the Sherburne Gym packed in a black-out by Sunapee students supporting their Lakers on homecoming. The first set was won by a score 25-17 in favor of Prospect Mountain. This was followed by a convincing 25-8 win by Prospect Mountain in the second set. Going into the third set, the Lakers were down 2-0 and trying to keep the match going.  The Lakers extended the match by winning the third set 25-20 to keep their hopes of winning this match alive. Sadly for the Sunapee student section, however, the Lakers would go on to lose the next set 25-14. Notable performances were made by Emma Mcnally and Katelyn Claus who had a fantastic back-line game. Additionally, Addy Pifer and (once again) Katelyn Claus  did a tremendous job at the net. This game moved Sunapee to 5-4 on the season. The Lakers’ Volleyball team had two more games last week that will be updated in a future article, and they are looking to pick things up and get back onto that winning track and qualify for the Division IV tournament. Let’s Go Lakers!  

The Sunapee Volleyball team started last week off traveling to Mascoma Valley Regional High School on Monday, September 27th for their 7th match of the season. Going into this game, the Lakers were sitting at 4-2. Sunapee started off the game by winning the first set 25-16. The Lakers followed that with another winning set of 25-16. The Lakers led the match 2-0 going into the third set. In the third and final set, the Lakers won 25-8 in dominant fashion. Notable performances were Emma Mcnally, Katelyn Claus, and Emma Reed who all had a very successful night serving. This win moved the Lakers to 5-2 on the season. The Lakers then had a home match in the Sherburne Gym against the Epping Blue Devils on Tuesday, September 28th. This match marked the halfway point of the Lakers’ season. The Blue Devils came out with a 25-22 win over the Lakers. Then the Blue Devils won the next set 25-13. Going into the third set, the Lakers were down two sets to the Blue Devils. In the third set, the Lakers were trying to keep the match alive, but to no avail with the Blue devils winning 25-20. Notable performances were Emma Mcnally and Addy Pifer who had fantastic passing and digging. As well as Katelyn Claus who had yet another strong performance at the net. This match moved the Sunapee Lakers to 5-3 halfway through the 2022 volleyball season. Let’s Go Lakers!  

The Sunapee Volleyball team had their home opener Wednesday against Inter-Lakes High School. Going into this game, the girls had a fantastic win over Moultonborough which had put them to 2-0 on the season. The first set came down to the wire with Inter-Lakes scraping by with a 26-24 win. Sunapee then bounced back with a 25-19 win, putting the match to 1-1 going into the third set. This set saw Interlakes winning 25-20. The fourth set saw Inter-Lakes win 25-18, ending the match at 3-1. The score, however, did not show how well the Sunapee Lakers played; the team had a serve accuracy of 90%. One notable performance was Katelyn Claus having 20 total hits at the net(10 of which were kills). Additionally she had no errors.  The 2-1 Lakers had another game on Friday, September 16th, at Franklin High School which will be followed by a game tonight at Conant High School. Let’s Go Lakers!

On Wednesday, September 7th, the Sunapee volleyball team traveled to Moultonborough Academy for their second match of the season. Following their 3-1 win over Concord Christian Academy, the girls looked to win this game, and move to 2-0. The Lakers had a commanding start, winning the first set 25-15. Recovering from the first game setback, Moultonborough came back with a strong second winning the set  25-18 in favor of the Panthers and followed that up with another win of 25-11 in the third set. Looking to turn things around, the Lakers won the fourth set 25-18. While the first four sets are scored to 25, the fifth and final set is only scored to 15. The Lakers were able to grind out a 16-14 win, finishing the match 3-2. This match moves the Lakers to 2-0 heading into their first home match on Wednesday, September 15th. Let’s Go Lakers!

On Friday, September 3rd, the Sunapee Varsity Volleyball team traveled to Concord Christian Academy to take on the Kingsmen in their season opening game. The match lasted about 4 sets,  with the Lakers winning by a score of three games to one. The opening set was won by Sunapee, 25-17 but the Kingsmen came back strong in the second set to win  25-18. The Lakers rebounded with a dominant third set set, winning 25-16 before squeaking out a suspenseful 26-24 win in the final game. Notable contributions were made by Emma Mcnally who led the team in hits around the net with 21, of which 8 were kills.  Addy Pifer also had a valuable night serving, with 28 successful serves.  Senior Allison Tschudin, a four-year member of the varsity volleyball team and a part of the team that went to the division 3 semi -finals in 2020 commented on what went well in the victory. “Communication. There was a lot of communication in this game which was critical in this win. As well, I feel like we are gelling better than previous years. This communication led to successful sets and serves.” In response to what could improve, Tschudin had this to say, “I think a mix of everything honestly. It was a very good first game for us, but there is always something to improve on. We know perfection isn’t possible, but we can always work towards it. I feel like we were too in the middle on the opponent’s serves, and our hitting could have improved at times. However this will just come with time, and I think we have a good season to look forward to.” The Lakers will travel to Moultonborough, Wednesday, September 7th. They hope to get another good win and start the season 2-0. Let’s Go Lakers!