FULTON COUNTY RIVALS … Evergreen’s Avery Emmitt records a dig in the Vikings straight set win at home over Delta.
PHOTOS BY JACOB KESSLER / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
DELTA FRESHMAN … Willa Rosene tips the ball over the net in Thursday’s nonleague match at Evergreen.
By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
METAMORA (September 4, 2025) – On the first point of the first set of the Delta-Evergreen match, the Panthers’ Keagyn Gillen blocked a Viking attacker for a score.
Oh, how things changed for the duration of the night from that time. After Gillen’s block, Evergreen pounded out 43 attack kills over the rest of the game, and rolled to a 25-14, 25-16, 25-12 victory over the Panthers. The Vikes are now 6-1 and still undefeated in league play.
“We were more diverse tonight than we have ever been offensively,” Viking coach Kelsey Wulf expressed. “We had four people with six or more kills, we were over 40 for three sets, which is really, really good.”
“We were able to execute every free ball; our serve receive was on point tonight, so we were very offensive-minded.”
Willa Rosene followed up Gillen’s block with a kill to help Delta to a 4-1 lead. Avah Vaculik’s ace, then a trio of kills by Lyla Radel, pushed Evergreen on top 8-6, a margin that grew through the rest of the first set.
Avery Emmitt and Lanae Manz each stuck three more shots to the wood to put away the Panthers in the first. Emmitt nailed the first three shots she took in the second as the Vikings went ahead 6-1.
A flurry of shots that went wide got Delta back to 6-5, but Beth Sintobin ignited a big run with a middle kill as Evergreen scored 8 of the next 10 points.
Manz scored three of those tallies, Sylvie Abec added one more along with another Vaculik ace to make it 14-7.
Claire Bates retaliated for the Panthers, and again the Vikings went cold hitting-wise, allowing Delta to climb back within 16-14.
This time, Radel got Evergreen back on track with a shot from the right, then Sintobin took over from the middle, drilling a three-bag of kills to put Evergreen in control.
Lissa Roesti’s ace sparked a 7-0 run early in the third to put Evergreen ahead 9-1. Manz scored three of the seven, and Emmitt added a kill along with an ace to push the Vikings up big.
With the score 18-10, Manz got hot with four shots from the left. Radel and Sintobin each tacked on one more kill for the night to end the match.
“It’s good to be where we are right now,” Wulf said. “The league is very competitive, and we are about to go on a hard stretch where we play Tinora and Fairview, along with Swanton, Archbold, and Patrick Henry in the league.
“It’s good to head into that with a little momentum, but we have to tie up some loose ends.”