Hurons dominate St. Ignace in SAC win
by Amanda Polaski– Staff Writer
The Rogers City Huron volleyball team had a week of rest after battling against Alpena last Monday, and apparently, rest is a good thing. The Lady Hurons came out strong against Straits Area Conference rival St. Ignace Monday night in front of their home crowd, dominating the Saints in three games, winning 25-11, 25-19, and 25-9. ?YOU NEVER know how it will be with St. Ignace,? said coach Mary Fairbanks. ?They didn?t lose many players from last year. We were anticipating anything, either way. This was an important conference win for us ? it?s important to win as many as we can, and keep the opponent scores low. We wanted to take them in three games tonight so there wouldn?t be any surprises later.?
It was in game three where the Orange and Black would put the match away, starting out strong with senior Moni Cercone at the serving line. Jenny Fleming put a deep corner shot away to bring the score to a quick 3-0 advantage for the Hurons. St. Ignace left Rogers City undefended at the net, giving the Huron hitters room to play. Kaitlin Klingshirn gained some air from the outside corner, and put one down in St. Ignace territory, taking the score to 5-1.
Rogers City had several minor errors, but somehow managed to turn those into points as well. The team played quick, and at many times, seemed unstoppable. Klingshirn shot an ace serve off a St. Ignace passer, putting the ball into the stands and bringing the score to 11-4.
CERCONE followed with the shot heard ?round the gymnasium ? a hard attack directly into the face of a St. Ignace opponent. Fleming followed at the serving line with an ace serve, taking the score to 15-5, and forcing St. Ignace to call a timeout. St. Ignace tried hard, but could not come up with hardly any earned points of their own ? benefiting only from several small Huron errors at the net. Libero Lauren Hanson dropped an ace serve on the back line, leaving the St. Ignace defenders looking, and inching the score closer to victory at 17-7. Hanson would continue serving for the Hurons until a sideout left the score at 24-8. Two Huron passing errors would give St. Ignace a glimpse of life, but a serving error from the Saints would leave Rogers City with nothing left to do but celebrate their first SAC victory.
?The girls had a little revenge for the football team tonight,? said Fairbanks after the game. ?That was the goal throughout the week ? to seek revenge. It?s good to see the programs supporting each other. We also had a big crowd here (tonight), and it is real nice to see people coming out to support our volleyball program.?
Monday?s win left the Hurons with a 9-5-6 record overall, and a 1-0 SAC record, giving them four points in the conference competition thus far. For the Hurons, Cercone led the pack with 12 kills, 8 digs, and 3 ace serves. Fleming had 11 kills, and 3 blocks. Senior sette
IN JV ACTION against St. Ignace, the Huron team won, 25-20, 25-20, and 18-16. Tiffany Schaedig had 6 kills for her team, while Rebecca Peacock added 3 kills of her own. Libero Carly Wilk had 12 digs. The JV team finished third in the Rudyard Invitational Saturday. They won in the first round of play-offs against Newberry, but lost to Sault Ste. Marie in semi-final action. ?The girls had a really good day Saturday,? said coach Karla Fairbanks. ?Our libero, Carly Wilk, played really well all day for us.?