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Boyne City's Coates has perfect start to coaching career, NCMC serves up '23 season

drew kochanny, the petoskey news-review
·3 min read

PELLSTON — Tyla Coates couldn’t have scripted a better start to her coaching career with the Boyne City volleyball team.

Because, well, it doesn’t get any better than perfect.

The Ramblers opened the 2023 campaign in the annual Pellston Invite, finishing the day with the title and a perfect 12 for 12 day through sets.

Boyne earned the championship win over Cheboygan, the same team they topped for the victory a year ago in the same tournament.

The Boyne City volleyball team opened the 2023 season with a perfect start and a title in Pellston over the weekend, led by first-year head coach Tyla Coates.
The Boyne City volleyball team opened the 2023 season with a perfect start and a title in Pellston over the weekend, led by first-year head coach Tyla Coates.

“From winning the tournament last year we were going into today wanting that same outcome,” said Coates. “The girls started slow, but we found our kinks and worked them out on the court. Each girl knew how to adjust their serve, hit, tip and defensive position to present them with points.”

MORE: Local volleyball players cap travel season with title in Orlando

Elly Wilcox led the way with 32 kills, followed by Josie Wilson (30) and Amelia Dunstan (26). Brianna Ager served at 100 percent and Coates credited seniors Ava Tarsi and Aubrey Burns with strong play and leadership throughout the day.

Boyne City next hosts Onaway, Alpena and Bellaire in a quad on Tuesday, Aug. 22.

Charlevoix at Kingsley 

KINGSLEY — Charlevoix volleyball got the season started over the weekend with a trip to Kingsley and finished with a 2-2-1 day.

The Rayders earned wins over Manistee (25-13, 25-19) and Mason Count Central (25-16, 25-12), then split with Beaverton (19-25, 25-21). They also fell twice to eventual champion, Lake City, dropping in pool play (25-19, 25-16) and then bracket play (25-11, 25-13).

“I thought the competition was great and really helped our team identify our strengths and let us understand at high level competition what we need to work on,” Charlevoix coach Audra Randall said.

MORE: Charlevoix, Petoskey highlight area volleyball players to watch in 2023

Addison Boop led with 33 kills and six aces, Ava Boss had 45 assists, 19 digs and six aces, Aeryn Larson had 22 kills and three blocks, Kyle Rice had 38 assists and four aces and Abbey Wright had 18 kills and seven digs.

Anna Kemp also had 25 digs and four aces, Karlee Eaton had nine digs and Ayla Kemp had 22 digs.

Charlevoix heads back to Kingsley Wednesday, Aug. 23 for another quad.

The North Central Michigan College women's volleyball team opened the season with a 1-3 start in a season-opening tournament in Rockford, Ill. over the weekend.
The North Central Michigan College women's volleyball team opened the season with a 1-3 start in a season-opening tournament in Rockford, Ill. over the weekend.

COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL 

NCMC opens in Illinois

ROCKFORD, Ill. — The second-ever North Central Michigan College volleyball season opened up over the weekend with the Timberwolves in Rockford, Ill. meeting four teams.

North Central began the season with a victory over Black Hawk College-Moline (3-1), then fell to Illinois Valley (3-2), Madison College (3-0) and Century College (3-0).

Against Black Hawk, the Timberwolves earned wins of 25-16, 25-17 and 25-20.

For the weekend, Ava Wendel (Traverse City) led with 34 kills, 22 digs and six aces, Grace Baragrey (Johannesburg) had 19 kills, Camille Wardin (Saginaw) had 16 kills and Brooklynn Besteman (Rudyard) finished with 14 kills.

Analiese Fredin (McBain) also had 90 assists, 13 kills and 24 digs, Olivia DeGroot (Petoskey) had six aces and 23 digs, Jackie Brinkman (Bay City) had 58 digs and five aces and Makenzie Castle (Grayling) had seven aces and 18 digs.

The Timberwolves are playing under first-year head coach Shannon Flippin, who was an assistant with the team last season. The team also welcomes new assistants Heather Miller, former head varsity coach at Petoskey High School and former Northmen volleyball player and PHS Hall of Fame member, Erin Luckhardt.

“The coaching staff is very excited about this year's team,” Flippin said before the season. “We return a large portion of last year's team who have the experience and leadership we need to guide our younger players. Our first year players are loaded with height, talent, and enthusiasm and should contribute a great deal to the success of this year's team.”

Next up for NCMC is a hosted quad on Thursday and Friday, Aug. 24-25. Macomb Community College, Henry Ford College and Alpena CC will all be in attendance.

Contact Sports Editor Drew Kochanny at dkochanny@petoskeynews.com. Follow him on Twitter, @DrewKochanny, and Instagram, @drewkochanny

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Boyne City's Coates has perfect start to coaching career, NCMC serves up '23 season