Starting to trust each other. That’s how head volleyball coach Karley Wiensch described the Oriole varsity volleyball team after it clinched second place at a Merrill tournament on Saturday.

“At the tournament, I felt like the girls were starting to gel and trust each other on the court,” Wiensch said. “They were playing as a team and found ways to score when we were down in games. The girls stayed positive the whole time, and did not get down on themselves if they made a mistake. Our serving was GREAT at the tournament! We had 27 aces in four matches.

With a current record this season of 13-5, the Orioles faced off against Loyal on Tuesday September 6 at home. “We did a great job playing together,” Wiensch said after the earlier Tuesday meet. “Loyal was scrappy in the second and third games, but we found a way to push through our errors and came out on top with a win.” With a 3-0 win over Loyal, stat leaders were as follows Tuesday.

In the first place was Avery Vait, with 15 assists and 4 aces. Following Vait was Kaden Drehmel with 12 assists and 3 aces against Loyal. Tina Ben- son got in 10 digs, while Kayte Licht made 5 aces, 8 digs, and 10 kills.

Teagen Becker came in Tuesday with 5 block kills and 9 kills, while Emily Brenner had 9 kills as well.

Shifting back from Loyal to the tournament and beyond, Wiensch seemed to see the team as being in a good place moving forward.

“I feel like this tournament will help us going into conference play starting tomorrow,” she said. “There was a lot of great competition at this last tournament in Merrill. All divisions were represented there.”

Having just faced Thorp this past Tuesday (after press time), the Orioles head next to McDonnell for an away game matchup September 20. Play starts at 7:15 p.m.