For the Kids, Mifflin County hosts Juniata in a Gold Out contest

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: September 14, 2023

By Kenny Varner

LEWISTOWN – The Gold standard.

On Thursday afternoon, the MIfflin County held a Gold Out game against Juniata, supporting their Mini-Thon Events with proceeds going to help support the Thon organization.

“Mini-Thon does a really good job of setting things up,” said MIfflin County coach Jenna Slepicka. “They run it, bring in a basket raffle, they bring in a huge crowd for the games so we try to wear gold and all donations and proceeds, whether it be our chip serve, or our baskets outside, it all benefits Mini-Thon.

While holding the Gold Out, the Huskies play was golden in their win against the scrappy Indian team .

It would be a clean sweep as the Junior Varsity took a 2-0 victory while the varsity followed up with a 3-0 (25-12,25-12, 25-23) win as well.

“We are really close with the Juniata team. We’ve done a lot of scrimmaging over the summer. We got to know the girls and their coaches real well. So it’s always fun to have them here. We were at their place last year,” said Slepicka. “So we usually rely on our outside hitter

to go to Dakota Hershberger and our middle blocker Riley Hine. It was nice to see tonight we started to run different plays with the girls.”

The Huskies were led by Dakota Hershberger with 17 digs, 14 kills, and three aces. Riley Hine contributed three blocks and five kills, Gaby Powell added nine digs, and Maggie McMullen added seven kills.

In the first match of the night, the Lady Huskies started out firing on all cylinders, taking a 5-2 advantage off service points from Jamilee Gilbert (1) and Riley Hine (2).

Juniata battled back to tie the contest on the strong serves of Lexi Frontz as she hit three consecutive service points.

“We naturally play better when we are loose and I told them it didn’t matter about the scoreboard just go out there and play loose, it doesn’t matter. Knowing that we play better, “ said Juniata coach Layne Greenholt. “Hopefully they started listening in the third set.”

But the veteran Huskies would take back the lead and distance themselves on the scoreboard Hershberger ran off seven consecutive points in the run, posting two aces while teammate Maggie McMullen hit a dunk in the front row and one in the back corner, making it a 14-6 contest.

Though the Lady Indians battled but weren’t able to make up ground as the front line of the Huskies kept the scoring distance, moving onto the 25-12 victory.

Offensively, MIfflin County had a case of De Ja Vue as the two battled early on before the veteran Huskies team was able to get hot and rounded out another 25-12 victory.

The young Indians found their grove in the third and final game as they were able to push MIfflin County to the brink.

Brooklyn Ehrenzeller, Isabella Armstrong and Mariska Whitesel tightened up their game.

Down 16-9, the Indians chipped away at the lead. Picking up crucial service points in the comeback attempt were Hunter Meifert and Frontz.

The group also forced the Lady Huskies into numerous long volleys in the game.

But in the end, MIfflin County battled through the Juniata run to capture the 25-23 victory.

With the MIfflin County JV team win it was led by Ella Hartzler with 12 assists and Jensyn Taylor with five aces and four kills.