Michigan Tech right side hitter Rachel Zurek attempts a kill during a match against Saginaw Valley State Friday at the SDC Gym in Houghton. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — The Michigan Tech Huskies volleyball team did not need wins last weekend to guarantee a spot in the GLIAC Tournament, but they did need them for positioning. They beat Saginaw Valley State, 3-1, Friday and followed that up with a 3-0 win over Lake Superior State.

With the wins, the Huskies moved to 12-15 overall and 9-7 in conference play, which placed them seventh in the tournament positioning.

“I’m happy that we came away with two wins,” said Huskies coach Cindy Pindral. “Those were really important for us. It’s really important to win at home. I know I’ve said that multiple times.

“Then it’s really important to win on senior weekend as well. Obviously, we only do the celebration on one day, but the whole weekend is a celebration of it. I’m proud of our team for coming away with it. It was a little bit dicey at times, but we were able to get all of our seniors in and a good chunk of our roster in as well against those teams. Those matches are tough to play because both of those teams that we played coming into the weekend knew that they were not in the playoffs, so they knew that that was their final portion of the season. So, they’re just going to play their best ball and try to knock off us, essentially. But, we were able to stay resilient and get those wins.”

Yet, despite getting the wins, Pindral would still like to see her team play cleaner volleyball, especially at this point in the season.

“We watched film of those moments as a team (Monday) in our team meeting,” Pindral said. “We watched moments where we were doing all the right things, nothing’s ever perfect, but generally speaking, doing all the right things. Then we watched ourselves just make error after error, or not great touch after not great touch. So, a lot of the focus is just on ourselves. The opponent’s going to do whatever they do. But, we have so much control, person-to-person, when we have the ball on our side of the net. We tend to kind of muff it here and there, or just not give a great ball to the next person to get them in the best, or most optimal spot, to make a good play.

“So, the focus this week has been bettering the ball, meaning that when you have the ball, you need to improve the quality, so that we can be more and more in-system with every touch that we have.”

One player who has benefitted from the Huskies playing in-system has been junior right side hitter Rachel Zurek. Zurek, who was recruited as a middle blocker, has played right side and left side pins all season, and leads the Huskies with 309 kills. Pindral is now starting to utilize her in six rotations, and hopes that will continue.

“She’s a really dynamic player, and she has a huge ceiling,” said Pindral. “So, I’m excited to work with her more in the spring, particularly on the outside because, going into the season, we didn’t really think that was going to happen. But then, due to injury, and, frankly, Maddie Torola doing wonderful things on the right side, then that position became more and more apparent that she needed to fill in on the outside. So, I’m excited to get her some more reps in the spring and really work on her passing in particular. I think she’d be a great six-rotation player. She’s doing it in spurts for us right now with, to be honest, little to no training in it other than just playing in practice.

“So, yeah, I’m excited to sink my claws into her a little bit and get her really rolling in the spring. But for right now, we’re working through film. She’s asking good questions. She’s taking quality reps in practice. So, I’m hoping that we can pull it together (Wednesday).”

Zurek has also formed a strong bond with freshman setter Madelynn Kreider, who is still adjusting to how hard she needs to pass it to Zurek on the left side.

“They’re working through it,” Pindral said. “They’re good friends, they’re good people together off the court. So, it’s just continuing to develop that setter-hitter relationship. Maddie Kreider’s been working really hard on making sure that she’s pushing the ball all the way out. She plays with a lot of tempo, but sometimes it dies a little bit low and inside.

“That’s not specific to Maddie Kreider. If you look across the league, almost all the setters do that. It’s just part of it. So, we’ve been really developing her skill set on pushing the ball all the way out. We can have fast tempo, but also height, and Rachel jumps really well, so we need to have that height for her.”

Scouting the Warriors

The Wayne State Warriors come into Wednesday 21-5 on the season and 13-3 in GLIAC play. They closed the regular season with wins over Grand Valley State and Purdue Northwest last weekend. They defeated the Huskies earlier this season, 3-1, at the SDC Gym on Friday, Oct. 24.

They are led offensively by senior middle blocker Kayla Giroux, who has 379 kills this season. She has reached 20 or more kills six times this season, but what makes her so dangerous is when defenses focus on her, and her teammates get into 1-on-1 blocking situations.

“When we were watching film (Monday), we watched all of the ourselves digging her, or getting good block touches, and we got a lot on her when we played in our gym here. Part of it, too, is trying to sequester the right side, who did quite a number on us.

That’s the beauty of having a middle like Kayla Giroux on that team is that she is very, very efficient when she has the ball. But then, when she doesn’t get the ball, she’s really distracting, and then the other players around her are 1-on-1 or 1-on-none, and they can go to town. So, we need to be balanced in our defense.”

Game time

The Huskies and Warriors are set for a 7 p.m. opening serve Wednesday at the Matthaei Center in Detroit.