Granby — Middle Park spikers easily win league matches

In its first matches playing in the Frontier League this season, Middle Park High’s volleyball team easily won victories over both Lake County and Jefferson.

On Tuesday, Sept. 9, the Lady Panthers traveled to Leadville where they powered to victory over Lake County in three games by scores of 25-5, 25-19 and 25-14.

“These games were really not that close,” said coach Kris Newberry. “We brought in our non-starters to gain some experience. In this match, we had to challenge ourselves to run a variety of plays.”

Newberry said Shannan Stensvad was “on fire” as she served 19 straight serves in the varsity match’s first game and went on to earn 13 aces for the match. Madison Zolnir earned three aces.

Elsa Krieg was the team’s attack leader once again, racking up eight kills for the match. She was followed by Quincey Pedersen with four kills; Zolnir, Cheyenne Hickox and Anna Conrad with three kills apiece: Jessica Waldron and Stensvad with two kills each; and Arielle Steinberg with one.

Waldron and Pedersen led Middle Park’s varsity in digs with five apiece.

Tuesday’s trip to Leadville was a clean sweep for the Lady Panthers. Their junior varsity won in two games by scores of 25-12 and 25-23 while the C-Squad did the same by scores of 25-12 and 25-9.

Middle Park hosted Jefferson High School’s Saints on Wednesday, Sept. 10. Once again, the Lady Panthers cruised to a quick victory on their home court by scores of 25-12, 25-6 and 25-8.

“Jefferson is a developing program with mostly freshmen and sophomores, so it was an easy win for us,” Newberry said. “What we had to do in this match was challenge our girls to challenge themselves. Their mission was to maintain a high level of play and intensity regardless of the other team.”

Middle Park ended up with a better balanced offensive attack with the kills more evenly spread. Krieg earned six kills, followed by Stensvad with five. Hickox and Zolnir made three kills apiece while Pedersen, Chelsea Lang and Conrad had two kills each.

Feeding those kills were the team’s two setters. Zolnir made nine assists while Waldron posted seven.

Lang led the team in digs with five to her credit while Zolnir and Conrad picked four each.

Lang was also Middle Park’s top server with nine aces and 24 serves without an error. Stensvad earned two aces. Single aces were made by Krieg, Pedersen, Zolnir and Larissa Burg.

The Lady Panthers have the weekend off, but will be returning to action on Wednesday, Sept. 17, for another home match. They will be hosting Sheridan with the C-Squad playing at 4 p.m., JVs at 5 p.m. and varsity at 6 p.m.