The Hastings Banner — Thursday, September 30, 2021 — Page 17Bath takes control of GLAC golf standings
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
The Lakewood varsity girls’ golf team
finds itself somewhere it hasn’t in the Greater
Lansing Activities Conference standings – in
a hole.
It took the Vikings a few too many strokes
to get their balls in the holes on the front nine
at The Medalist in Marshall Monday as the
conference met for the final jamboree of the
fall season.
The Lakewood girls, who have won eight
consecutive conference championships and
have been in a battle this fall for the top spot
in the conference with the Bath Bees, placed
fifth at the jamboree. Bath tightened its grip
on the conference lead by scoring a 212, beat-
ing out Olivet which finished at 233, Perry
237, Laingsburg 242 and Lakewood 255.
Senior Claire Benham led the Lakewood
ladies with a 56, while Bath had its top four
scorers all in the 50s. Senior Madison Grennell
scored a 51 to lead her team to the win.
Sophomore Aubrie Schaibly scored a 52,
freshman Anna Schaibly a 52 and senior
Ally Estrada a 57 to round out the top four
for Bath.
Behind Benham for the Vikings, Makenzie
Vasquez shot a 64, Hailee Shepard a 67 and
Audrey Hillard a 68.
The day’s leaderboard was led by
Laingsburg senior Grace Elfring who scored
a 47.
Olivet senior Elle Sheppard tied the
Schaibly sisters for third individually with a
- Benham’s 56 had her in sixth place.
The conference is getting together at Forest
Akers today (Sept. 30) for the Greater Lansing
Activities Conference Championship 18-hole
Tournament.
Lakewood had a chance to regroup
Tuesday afternoon against area rival
Portland at Portland Country Club. The
Raiders bested the Vikings 183-220, but the
Vikings were mostly happy to get on the
right side of 60.
Shepard led the Vikings with a 53. Benham
shot a 54, Hillard a 55 and Vasquez a 58.The Raiders had four girls in the 40’s. That
group was led by junior Aubree Faulkner who
shot a 43. Gina Sonday shot a 45 for Portland,
Ashley Bower a 46 and Malia Thelen a 49.
Lakewood will head to The Cascades Golf
Club Wednesday, Oct. 6, for its Division 4
Regional Tournament hosted by Jackson
Lumen Christi.TK survives five-setter against Cedar Springs
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
It stretched about as long as a varsity vol-
leyball match could, but the Thornapple
Kellogg varsity volleyball team finally
secured its first OK Gold Conference win of
the season Tuesday (Sept. 21) over visiting
Cedar Springs.
The Trojans bested the Red Hawks by the
scores of 28-26, 19-25, 25-21, 24-26, 15-11.
Peyton Pratt and Tristen Cross had eight
kills apiece to lead the Trojan attack and
Alana Compton chipped in six kills.
Sophomores Charlotte Nelson and Jessie
Drenten shared the setting duties, with
Nelson putting up 16 and Drenten 12.
Senior libero Kiah Nichols had a team-high
29 digs. Pratt added 20 digs and Cross 13.
“It was a lot of fun,” said TK head coach
Tia Cross. “It was back and forth all night.
We had a great time with that match.”
“We came out really strong in that fifth set,
got ourselves a good lead and we held it.”
The Trojans couldn’t quite carry the
momentum from the victory into another
OK Gold dual at home Thursday. The
Trojans were bested 25-17, 25-14, 25-11 by
the visiting Cougars. A power outage at the
school early Thursday morning forced TK
to cancel classes for the day, and that likely
contributed to a slow start by the TK ladies.
“We weren’t ready to go right off the bat.
Once we picked it up we started playing a
little better and we got in that groove,”
coach Cross said. “I tried to change some
things in the third game so the girls could
have a little more fun and make it a little
more practice-like, and it didn’t work out.
So, I’ll take the heat on that.”
The Cougars won nine of the first ten
points, with Grace Braselton starting a big
night at the left side of the net. TK didn’t
have an answer for Braselton. She pounded
14 kills.
TK won four straight points at the end
of that opening set to get from 24-13 to
24-17 before the Cougars finished off the
game.
“We needed to carry the momentum
from the first game when we were making
our comeback into the second game and
then we needed to hold and we tend to let
other teams get on runs. We have to stop
the runs,” coach Cross said.
“That is a good team also.”
TK did carry the momentum a little bit.
The Trojans won the first four points of the
second set. The two teams were tied 6-
and as late in the game as 11-11. A big
block by Compton in the middle which she
followed with a kill on the next point had
TK up 11-10 before that 11th point started
the Cougars rolling.
“[Compton] is always looking for that
block and a way to improve her block and
go after it every time. She is definitely a
spark on the court for sure,” coach Cross
said. “Defensively, she is definitely going
after it up front and working every single
play to learn from one play to the next to
the next.”
Compton and Tristen Cross had four kills
each for TK. Drenten led the Trojans with
seven assists. Nichols had ten digs.
TK returned to action at Wayland
Tuesday, Sept. 28, falling 3-0 to the host
Wildcats. The Wayland girls outscored the
Trojans 25-16, 25-7, 25-13.TK sophomore setter Charlotte Nelson
puts a pass up during her team's three-
set loss to visiting Grand Rapids Catholic
Central Thursday in Middleville. (Photo
by Brett Bremer)TK senior libero Kiah Nichols reaches
back to make a pass in front of her bench
during the Trojans’ loss to visiting Grand
Rapids Catholic Central Thursday in
Middleville. (Photo by Brett Bremer)
Thornapple Kellogg's Peyton Pratt looks to fling an attack over the net during her team's match with Grand Rapids Catholic
Central Thursday evening in Middleville. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Lakewood's Claire Benham hits a put into the cup on the seventh green at The
Medalist in Marshall Monday during the GLAC jamboree hosted by Olivet. (Photo by
Brett Bremer)Lakewood’s Hailee Shepard watches
her tee shot fly on number eight at The
Medalist Monday during the GLAC jam-
boree hosted by Olivet in Marshall.
(Photo by Brett Bremer)The Vikings’ Audrey Hillard hits a chip
shot up towards the green on number
seven at The Medalist Monday during the
GLAC jamboree hosted by Olivet High
School. (Photo by Brett Bremer)