Kyla Kuiper serves historic set to lead Zeeland East volleyball past West; HC tops Hamilton

ZEELAND - Kyla Kuiper stepped back to serve to start the third set.

>She served and served - and served.

>Kuiper served Zeeland East to a 9-0 lead over Zeeland West with a couple of aces mixed in with strong placement.

>After one rotation, she was back at the service line and served the last eight points as the Chix defeated the Dux 26-24, 25-18, 25-8 on Tuesday, Sept. 29, on their Pink Out night for breast cancer awareness.

>"We talk about thriving in key moments and they did that tonight," Zeeland East coach Jake Szetela said. "Kyla took over and gave us a lot of opportunities. She is always a serving weapon for us. She served aggressively with confidence."

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>Kuiper, a Boston College commit, served for 17 points in the third set, something so rare, especially in a rivalry match.

>"I have not had many sets like that," Kuiper said. "It is really fun in this environment. My serves were able to kind of freeze the other side. I went a little bit short-deep, then I went across, too, and kind of mixed up everything. It is a big deal when it works like that - 25-8 is a big run."

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>The Chix improved to 20-2 and 6-0 in the OK Black Conference.

>"We knew we were going to get a really strong showing from them. That Zeeland on Zeeland matchup; we knew they were going to play a really good first set," Szetela said. "We talked about surviving that first punch. We were slow to make adjustments and finding short spots. They absolutely battled."

>While the third set got away from the Dux, their potential showed in the first and second sets.

>"We started with East-West energy, that is always going to be there, no matter what the records are," Zeeland West coach Chris Mack said. "That ran out in the second and we stopped believing. We gave away a lot of free balls on serve receive over and over in the third set. Our defense and serve receive has to get better, but our offense was pretty dynamic."

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Holland Christian 3, Hamilton 1In another rivalry match, the Maroons defeated the Hawkeyes 21-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-17.

>Tessa Leeuw had 13 kills, while Addi Meiste had 11 and Allison Lamer added 10. Ella Terpstra tallied 39 assists. Kate Genzink had 12 digs and three aces.

>Contact sports editor Dan D’Addona at Dan.D’Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as  Twitter @DanDAddona or Facebook @HollandSentinelSports.

>This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Kyla Kuiper serves historic set to lead Zeeland East volleyball past West; HC tops Hamilton