Olivia Irion’17 serves the ball. (Photo by Whitney Dankworth’17)

The Vikes suffered a loss on October 10 against the London Red Raiders, who have remained undefeated in league play throughout the season. Despite losing in three straight sets, Academy showed immense improvements from the last time the two teams met three weeks ago, with much closer scores in each set of 20-25, 19-25, and 15-25.

Following this loss, the Vikes bounced back with one of the biggest wins against the Bexley Lions, claiming victory in three sets: 25-20, 25-16 and 25-21.

Service aces played a large role in the team’s win against Bexley, with Kayla Podugrski’19, Madi Smith’17, and Noelle Boltz’20 serving three aces each. Sophia Freytag’20 led the team with seven kills, and her teammates Cassie Davis’17, Kami Tibbles’17, and Podgurski each totaled four kills, followed by Camille Reeves’19 and Morgan Hamilton’17 with three apiece. Freytag also totaled the most digs of the night with 17, with Tibbles close behind with 11 digs and Hamilton and Olivia Irion’17 totaling 10 each.

Podgurski had an optimistic view towards the outcome of the postseason. She said,  all of the girls worked extremely hard this season which paid off in a big win against Bexley. We’re continuing to push ourselves even harder by ending each practice on a good note and getting motivated to play our best in the postseason.”

The confidence from their win against Bexley coupled with motivated practices can propel the Vikes to move past the first round sectionals for the first time in the program’s history.

The team competes in the first round of sectionals next week against Newark Catholic on Wednesday, October 19 and a home game against Madison Plains on Saturday October 22.