By Wendi Reardon Price
Clarkston News Sports Writer
INDEPENDENCE TWP. — Clarkston Girls Varsity Volleyball moved to the top of the OAA Red last week with wins over Lake Orion and Bloomfield Hills last week.
The Wolves opened the week defeating Lake Orion on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 3-1.
“It’s always awesome,” said Ali Smith about the win over the Dragons. “There is great tradition at both Clarkston and Lake Orion and there’s great tradition in the rivalry – it doesn’t matter what sport it is. It feels good every single time, it doesn’t matter what the teams are made up of each year, it’s always going to be a competitive match.”
Clarkston gave Lake Orion its first lost in the league, moving the Wolves up to first place and the Dragons to second place.
“We knew that going in if we still want to be in the chase to win the league we have to take care of business night in and night out,” Smith said.

The first set was close and the Dragons finished it taking the last two points, 25-23.
Smith shared the coaches didn’t need to say anything to the players after the set – the players knew.
“We have been talking a lot about our mind-set when we show up whether it be in a match, whether it be in a tournament, whether it be in practice,” Smith said. “It’s not good enough right now. We have had a lot of those conversations over the last couple of weeks. We, as a coaching staff, had to motivate them very little because they knew that the first set was not good enough. They did not grind hard enough, they didn’t make enough adjustments, they weren’t serving tough enough, being aggressive in any way. It was pretty much fixed by the group which is nice to see.”
Clarkston jumped to a 3-0 lead in the second set and finished with a 25-10.
They kept the Dragons in low scoring in the third set as well. The Wolves finished the set going on a 6-point run with a combination of points from junior Amelia Floros on an ace and hits from senior Isabelle Henry and sophomore Maya Kuebler to win 25-12.
The fourth set was tighter as both teams were close in points on the scoreboard. The Wolves had a 3-point lead, 22-19 after Kuebler had an ace.
Dragons cut the lead down by two with points from sophomore Julia Graebner and senior Addison Dukus.
Clarkston senior Addison Newblatt scored the next to points for Clarkston. Then, senior Rylee Hunt sent a kill over with an assist from sophomore Marlie Smith, ending the set 25-22.
Newblatt had 19 digs and 15 kills. Kuebler had 14 kills, 14 digs, five aces. M. Smith had 12 digs, nine kills, three aces, three blocks and 42 assists Sophomore Josie Seets had seven kills and five blocks. Hunt had eight kills and seven blocks. Floros had seven digs and four aces. Henry had five kills and senior Morgan Lozzi had 13 digs.
“Amelia had an unbelievable night,” Smith shared. “She came in and was a spark plug. She served super tough, got them out of system and played really gritty defense. Morgan was very consistent in serve receive as the night went on. Rylee is playing the best volleyball she has ever played right now.”
Smith added the serving was great in the second and third sets.
“I would have obviously liked it to be more aggressive in set one,” she added. “I would have liked to see it continue to be more aggressive in set four. We have always had a hard time digging their middles that zero tempo ball they run. We wanted to take them out of it and just defend the pins. I think our serving allowed us to do that.”
Clarkston improved 6-0 in the league with a 3-0 win over Bloomfield Hills on Thursday, 25-19, 25-10, 25-18.
Newblatt had 16 kills and seven digs Kuebler had nine kills and six digs. M. Smith had five digs and 36 assists. Seets had six kills, Henry had eight kills and Hunt had five kills. Floros had four aces. Lozzi ten digs and senior Skylar Alvrez had five digs.
The Wolves opened the week against West Bloomfield. They host Stoney Creek on Thursday in their last home game of the regular season. JV plays at 5:30 p.m., varsity follows.
“We have to show up ready to play every day,” Smith shared as the Wolves finish the last few weeks of the regular season. “We are in the top ten. We are always going to get everyone’s best game. If we think we can just show up and go through the motions, it’s not going to happen. I hope that is the biggest lesson we take away from the last five or so days.”

  Clarkston Athletics, Volleyball