An illness-depleted Sturgis volleyball team gave Coldwater a battle in a five-set match that eventually went the host Cardinals’ way. Coldwater held on for an 18-25, 25-18, 27-29, 25-23, 15-10 victory over the Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference East Division rival Trojans.
Sturgis dropped to 22-14-4 overall and 4-2 in the SMAC East.
Hollie Myers had six aces, 17 digs and five kills, Jamie Lioy finished with two aces, 10 digs and five kills, Hannah Marchand collected two aces and five kills and Morgan Pueschel added a pair of aces. Rachel Anderson came away with eight digs and 25 kills and Kelsey Metzger finished with seven kills, 37 assists and four blocks.
“The sickness that has been traveling through the team finally caught up with us tonight,” Sturgis coach Von Metzger said. “We were unable to practice [Tuesday] due to the number of players that were sick and we were still feeling the effects of that tonight. Unfortunately, we were not able to match Coldwater’s blocking and digging and we gave up way to many aces to their servers. We don’t have a tournament this weekend and hopefully that will allow everyone to get healthy and let us get a good push for the end of the season. This loss tonight probably takes us out of any conversation for a league title, which was one of our goals.”