EAST GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A season-opening volleyball match took place Wednesday, on a football field.
East Grand Rapids faced off against Hopkins in the first-ever "Rally on Reeds" event at Memorial Field.
The Pioneers took down the Vikings 3-0 in the first-of-its-kind event that featured more than 2,000 expected attendees, appearances from the Grand Rapids Rise and an outdoor court donated by Aquinas College.
"We were dead in the water putting the court together," said Bruce Hungerford, EGR volleyball head coach. "Everyone stepped up, 40, 50 volunteers."
It took over eight hours for the court to be built, with the process going right up until game time.
But when it was done, all the players and coaches could do is marvel at the atmosphere that was created.
"My eyes were off the court between plays, pretty much the whole night to be honest," said Hungerford. "Seeing friends, seeing family, seeing people I met over the process of setting this up was really, really cool."
"The past few years we haven't been the greatest program in the area...we haven't had a lot of fans at our game," said Madelyn Hungerford, junior player on the team. "Seeing the community come out and cheer for us is really nice."
There was also a bounce house and dunk tank for fans pre-game.
Coach Hungerford tells 13 ON YOUR SIDE he hopes next year could be a double-header, potentially with Rockford volleyball.
Multiple members of the East Grand Rapids community say the hope is for "Rally on Reeds" to be an annual event.