Team opens conference play this week
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
With the Rock Valley Conference schedule right around the corner, first-year East Troy girls volleyball coach Scott Nagorski was looking for a few things from his squad at Saturday’s Brookfield Central Tournament.
He left after the Trojans posted a 2-2 record feeling confident about what he saw.
East Troy finished pool play at 2-1 before a loss in the Gold Division to Brookfield Central to return with a 2-2 overall record.
“The team played well during the tournament,” he said. “We went in looking to work on a few things and felt we improved in our serving and blocking.”
Nagorski said he knew going in that each match would be a battle – especially since the Trojans entered play ranked No. 1 in Division 2 by wissports.net.
“Due to our ranking, we know that none of these teams (we play) will take us lightly,” he said. “So we needed to keep up our intensity throughout the whole tournament.”
East Troy, ranked fifth in the latest poll, opened the day with a 25-22, 19-25, 15-10 win over Brookfield East, which last week was ranked fourth in Division 1 before it fell to 10th this week.
Leading the way against Eat were Briana Scuric (seven kills, two blocks), Isabelle Martino (six kills, two blocks, 12 assists), Katie Winkler (four kills), Mati Jakscht (12 digs), Katie Zewiske (nine kills) and Emily Wendt (10 assists).
“(We) played very well against Brookfield East and maintained a very high energy level throughout the match,” Nagorski said. “That was definitely a key to us winning and also an example of what can carry us into the future.”
The Trojans’ other win came in the pool play finale, as it beat Nicolet, 25-19, 25-14, to bounce back from a 22-25, 25-27 loss to Mukwonago in its second match.
Leaders against Mukwonago were Scuric (14 kills, two blocks, 14 digs), Jordan Friedrichs (five kills), Jakscht (17 digs), Zewiske (10 digs), Martino (six digs, 14 assists) and Wendt (six digs, 10 assists).
Against Nicolet, leaders were Scuric (six kills, three aces, eight digs), Martino (five kills, two aces, nine digs, seven assists), Friedrichs (four kills), Jakscht (two aces, six digs), Winkler (three blocks) and Wendt (13 assists).
East Troy finished the day with a 17-25, 23-25 loss to Brookfield Central in its first Gold Division bracket matchup.
“In Game 1, our serve-receive broke down a little bit, and in Game 2, we didn’t serve as well as we had been all day,” Nagorski said. “We just couldn’t seem to win the crucial points to get us over the hump in that match.”
Leaders for the Trojans were Scuric (12 kills, seven digs), Winkler (four kills, nine digs, five assists), Friedrichs (three blocks) and Martino (eight digs, 14 assists).
Nagorski also was pleased to see his team overcome some adversity during the day, as the Trojans found themselves at less than full strength.
“The team showed how it will fight to battle adversity,” he said. “We lost our libero to illness for a few points against Nicolet, and one of our outside hitters had to sit out Game 2 against Brookfield Central.”
East Troy opened RVC pay Tuesday night against visiting McFarland, followed by a road game Thursday at Big Foot.
Now it’s time for the Trojans to start focusing on the next goal at hand, Nagorski said.
“We have been eagerly awaiting the start of conference play,” he said. “We need to play with energy and intensity. We need to serve well to keep pressure on our opponents and keep them out of system as much as possible. Also, we have been passing well and need to keep that up so our offense runs smoothly.”
