It was only a scrimmage, but the level of play between Seton Catholic and Northeastern Wednesday evening, Aug. 9, looked like both teams were in midseason form.
The scrimmage, originally scheduled to be played at Seton Catholic but later moved to Northeastern, was the last chance to work out the kinks before the regular season officially begins Aug. 12 for two teams that anticipate having outstanding seasons.
The Knights won 21 games last season and were sectional champions. Seton Catholic won 20 games last season with a young team.
Scrimmages are scripted beforehand. In the first segment, each team serves the ball a total of 30 times, switching after each five serves. The teams finished that segment within five points of each other.
The next segment included two regular sets with the first team to score 25 points winning. Northeastern won the first set 25-20, Seton Catholic won the second set 25-20.
The final segment consisted of two sets to 15. Northeastern won both by the scores of 15-10 and 15-12.
Both coaches were positive and happy with what they saw from their teams.
Emily Tremain in her first year as the head coach at Seton Catholic was pleased with the play of her team. “Both teams played really well,” Tremain said. “It was almost like a midseason match. Both teams played hard and played well. We have a big hitter in Bryn (VanVleet) but we talk all the time in practice that it doesn’t matter how well you hit if you can’t make good passes. Everybody was making good passes tonight and that allowed the setters to get the ball in a good position for not only Bryn but our other hitters as well. We have nine players, and I am pleased with all nine.”
Matt Fisher, in his second year as the head coach at Northeastern, also shared his thoughts. “We knew it would be difficult to contain Bryn (VanVleet). She is just electric, and she has D-1 talent,” Fisher said. “Overall, our girls handled the task of containing her as well as I could hope. Seton had other girls step up as well. I was happy with the competition from them. The way our girls responded tonight was encouraging. Olivia Null has stepped into the role of setter for us this season. She could play any position, but she really studies the offense and as our setter she gives us consistently good touches every rotation.”
There were other scrimmages played on Wednesday. Centerville traveled to Franklin County. Lincoln, a sectional champion and 25-game winner last year, hosted Connersville. Hagerstown traveled to Greensburg on Thursday to scrimmage against North Decatur.
A version of this article appeared in the August 16 2023 print edition of the Western Wayne News.