The Lowell volleyball team played for the first time in 64 days Friday in the division one state semifinals in Battle Creek.
The Red Arrows showed some rust dropping the opening set before eventually beating in five sets to advance to the division one state championship game for the second straight season.
"I think that showed a little bit in the first set," Lowell head coach Jordan Drake about hos team's time off. "We have a lot of kids on our team who haven't been to this stage before and had that experience so there was a lot of excitement on our side of the court and I think that was pretty evident at the beginning and we just had to settle in."
Lowell did not play Tuesday in the state quarterfinals after Portage Central had to forfeit because of COVID-19.
Still, the Red Arrows didn't panic when they got behind early on Friday.
"I think we know what we want to do here," Lowell senior outside hitter Jenna Reitsma said. "We really want to play hard and I think getting down in the first set is more motivation to do better later on because we don't want to end that way, we want to keep fighting. Our team works together so well, we all rely on each other so much to do our jobs and I think that really showed as we came back in that set."
Reitsma had a game-high 41 kills in the game to lead Lowell.
The Red Arrows are scheduled to play Bloomfield Hills Marian in the division one final on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Kellogg Arena.
