Troy Scouting Report.

Written Wednesday October 23rd, at 12:40 AM

The Troy Colts this season knew they were going to struggle but to struggle this bad is an understatement. The Colts will meet the Dragons on Thursday night for Lake Orion's Senior Night.

 The Colts this season had to rebuild from scratch and it has been tough for Coach Vince Muscat, who enters his second season in Troy. Troy did get some bad news early when they lost Olivia Parks (their top player) for the season with an ACL injury. The Colts also lost a lot of experience last season that made the regional semifinals but Troy does have some pieces to work with. 

I still believe that with or without Parks the Colts have a chance at winning the district that they are in (District 29 at Troy Athens with them, Troy Athens, Pontiac, Avondale, Waterford Kettering, and Waterford Mott.) It will depend on the match up they get and it has to be the right one for them. I’m not sold on Troy Athens or Avondale in that district or the Waterford schools because of the schedule even though the Waterford schools have had to play the likes of Lakeland. Troy Athens and Avondale has played each other and the White Schedule while Troy has played the likes of Clarkston, Lake Orion, Birmingham Seaholm, Oxford, etc in the Red.

Troy does have some very good players. The cupboard is not bare in Colt country not by any means. Yes they are young but you can't use that word anymore. All these teams have plenty of experience now with tournament play and league play as well. The players they have can contribute but losing Parks was so huge for this team but they had to move on without her and have done so. Even though the win-loss record is tough to see but to the Colts the win-loss record doesn’t matter, they want to improve and get better before playoff time. Troy will be led by Sydney Alexander, their inside hitter. Alexander is a very good player in the inside and had six kills against Clarkston. The Colts also have some more young talented players in Hannah Moeller, Kristen Losey, Gabby Gohl, Anna Marie Cappetto, and Lauren Ferguson that have contributed for Troy this season. Coach Vince Muscat’s team is young but the future looks very bright in Colt country.

Troy might be catching Lake Orion at the right time. The Dragons in the last two weeks have been a modest of the artwork The Scream lately. Ever since Homecoming, Lake Orion looks like a shell of themselves by going 1-2 in the last three matches not including the Beast of the East Tournament where they beat Macomb Dakota. The Dragons has made plenty of errors and mental mistakes that have cost them matches and at times looked just awful. The last match the Dragons in was especially brutal. The third game in Birmingham when Lake Orion was the tipping point in the match, tied at one game a piece and up 20-14 it looked like the Dragons was about to go up two games to one on the Maples but the mental errors and mistakes along with the belief by Birmingham Seaholm led to them to outscore the Dragons 13-5 and win 27-25 in that set. Lake Orion would lose in five games on Tuesday night.

The district playoffs is two weeks away and it’s a brutal district for the Dragons and at the reality of seeing Clarkston first at their place in the district semifinals is going to be very tough. We’ll see what happens Thursday and beyond that for the Dragons and the Colts.