Hurons win district title, fall to McBain
by Angie Asam, Staff Writer
The Rogers City Hurons varsity volleyball team traveled to Charlevoix Tuesday for a regional semi-final game against the eighth-ranked McBain Ramblers. The Hurons would battle the Ramblers closely in game one as the score was tied at 11 early on but McBain would go on a roll to defeat the Hurons 25-14. Game two was much like the first with the score close most of the way. With the score 21-20 senior Logan Schuiteman would get a block followed by a Becca Peacock kill to give the Hurons a 23-20 lead. A hitting error by McBain and another Peacock kill gave the Hurons the 25-20 victory.
Rogers City would fall behind early in game three and could never catch up as they fell 25-16. Game four started with McBain jumping to an early 5-1 lead before a serving error gave the Hurons a point and the ball, a Rachel Lewandowski serve for a point moved the score to 5-3. With the score 8-6 in favor of the Ramblers they would go on a run taking the lead to 14-6 and going on to win the game 25-16.
?We had a great last week and brought home a district title, we came into tonight not knowing too much about McBain, other than knowing they were ranked and were pretty good. We knew we would have to play to the best of our ability and stay up and play our game. We hung with them the first game, second game we came at them with more intensity and won that game, but fell short the next two games. We really struggled with passing tonight, it was like they were stuck to the floor, I am not sure if they were nervous but we just did not do well passing and it is very difficult to set up a play when the passes are off the net or over the net,? said coach Kristy Smolinski.
Schuiteman notched 23 digs and five kills in the match. Amanda Smolinski had 23 digs, five set assists, six kills and three aces. Shelby Schleben had 10 digs and four ace serves to bring her ace total to 188 on the season. Linnea Brege had five set assists and five aces and Peacock added five kills. ?Overall, them team exceeded my expectations and we brought home a disctict title and that is nothing to hang your head about. I am proud of all of them and they have all improved so much since the beginning of season. I will miss my seniors and wish them the best in their next sport and am excited about what next year will bring. They did a great job and I had a great season!? said coach Smolinski. The loss was the end of volleyball careers for Schuiteman, Leann Knopf and Katie Tulgestke as Rogers City will return much of their lineup next season.
THE HURONS ADVANCED to their first regional game since 2007 after defeating Whittemore-Prescott in four games last Friday to win the district title. Rogers City would take game one 25-23. The game was a back and forth battle most of the way. Rogers City was down 11-10 but a block by Peacock and four aces by Schleben gave them a 15-11 lead. Whittemore wouldn?t go away however as they came back to tie the game at 23 before a Peacock kill gave Rogers City the ball back and a Smolinski kill sealed the deal for the Hurons.
Rogers City would fall behind 1-6 in game two and would battle to within three points but would never lead as they fell 21-25. Game three started as a back to forth battle and with the game tied at 9, Rogers City would fall behind 9-14 before a Schleben kill, Smolinski kill, ace by Brege, Peacock kill, Smolinski kill, and another Peacock kill set up by good passing by Schuiteman and Emily Marx would give the Hurons the 17-14 lead. Rogers City wouldn?t look back as they combined, kills, aces and blocks to take the 25-18 win.
Rogers City dominated game four taking a decisive 25-8 win to earn the district title. Rogers City jumped out to an early 5-1 lead aided by a Smolinski kill, two aces by Schleben and a Peacock kill. At 8-4 a hard fought point went to Rog
Smolinski led the team with 36 digs, 15 kills, two aces and five set assists. Schuiteman would notch 28 digs, four kills and two aces. Schleben finished with 11 aces in the match as well as two kills and 24 digs. Peacock finished with 13 kills while Leann Knopf added three kills and six digs. Marx would add four ace serves and 14 digs while Brege had 21 digs, two aces and 12 set assists.
IN DISTRICT ACTION last Wednesday the Hurons defeated the Alcona Tigers in three straight, 25-13, 25-21 and 25-11. Schuiteman and Smolinski each had 21 digs in the match. Smolinski would add 14 kills while Schuiteman added three kills and three aces. Taylor Darling notched 10 aces and eight digs. Brege had 18 digs and 17 set assists. Schleben added 16 digs and seven kills while Peacock notched eight kills and three digs. Marx had six digs and four aces. Becky Talaske came off the bench to notch an ace serve to seal the win in game three.