Hurons improve to 3-1 in conference, home tournament Saturday
by Angie Asam, Staff Writer
The Rogers City Hurons volleyball team hosted Rudyard Tuesday in a Straits Area Conference match and defeated the visiting Bulldogs 25-19, 25-14, 17-25 and 26-24. On parent?s night/senior night in Rogers City a time when coach Kristy Smolinski honored her players and their parents and especially her seniors. The seniors then each took a turn thanking coach Kristy and her husband Al for all they have done and thanked their teammates as it was their last home match of their careers.
?I am happy with the way we played tonight. I wasn?t happy with the last game, we kind of let down. We tend to do that, we play really well and then we let down. We play very strong with our core six on the court but as soon as we make a change, which is expected they kind of freak out. That is a weakness of ours and we need to work on that,? said coach Smolinski. In game one the teams battled back in forth much of the early going until at 4-4 senior Shelby Schleben had the serve and rattled of three straight ace serves to give Rogers City a 7-4 lead. Schleben?s next serve sailed a bit long but Rogers City got the ball right back on a Rudyard error making the score 8-5.
At 10-5 Rudyard notched a kill before three Rogers City miscues returning the ball made it 10-8 and the teams again began trading points back and forth until at 20-18 junior Linnea Brege took the serve then set Amanda Smolinski for a kill and Lindsey Claus for a kill making the score 22-18 and forcing Rudyard to call timeout. After the timeout the teams swapped points making it 23-19 before Smolinski notched a good tip and Emily Marx stepped in to serve the game winner 25-19. WITH THE score tied 2-2 in the early part of the second game Brege stepped to serve and a Smolinski kill made it 3-2. Brege followed with an ace and two straight Rudyard errors made it 6-2 in favor of the Hurons. A Schleben kill followed by a Smolinski kill made it 8-2. Another Rudyard error and Smolinski kill made it 10-2 when Rudyard called a timeout.
Brege then stepped up and served an ace followed by a Claus kill making the score 12-2. The teams then flopped sideouts making the score 14-3 when Marx took the serve and a Rudyard error followed by a Becca Peacock and Becky Talaske block made the game 16-3.
Rudyard then battled back to make the score 16-11 before a Smolinski tip gave the Hurons the ball back with a 17-11 lead. After each team took points until the 20-14 mark Rebecca Meredith took the serve and a Marx dig deep in the back row kept the ball alive for a Schleben kill making it 21-14. A Rudyard error, another Schleben kill and two straight aces from Meredith sealed the win for the Hurons at 25-14.
GAME THREE started out close before Rudyard went on a run making it 5-10. Many hitting errors made the score 9-19 when Marx stepped to serve. A Peacock kill and Rudyard error followed by a Peacock and Smolinski block made it 12-19. Two more errors by the visitors made it 14-19 before Rudyard went on another run making it 14-23. A Peacock kill off an excellent pass from Marx gave the Hurons the ball back at 15-23. A good tip by Rudyard followed by a Smolinski tip made it 16-24 and gave the Hurons the ball back. Smolinski then served one point to get it to 17-24 before her next serve sailed out of bounds ending the game at 17-25.
AFTER A RUDYARD serve sailed out Rogers City got the ball with a 4-3 score in game four when Marx served an ace, Peacock got a block, Marx again aced the Bulldogs, Peacock followed with a block and Marx another ace to make the score 9-3. Rudyard then battled back to make it 13-12 before a Rogers City timeout. Out of the timeout the teams each had sideouts making it 14-13 when a Schleben kill and a Claus Kill made it 16-13. After a Rudyard sideout Schleben notched another big kill followed by a Smolinski kill and a Brege ace to make it 19-14. Marx took the serve at 20-15 and had an ace followed by
?Overall we played well. Becca (Peacock) and Amanda (Smolinski) had some really good hits tonight and Shelby (Schleben) was on fire tonight,? said coach Smolinski. Smolinski led the team with 14 kills as well as 11 set assists. Schleben had 11 kills, four set assists, one dig and three aces on the night. Peacock notched 11 kills while Claus had four kills.
Brege had one kill, 21 set assists, four digs and two aces. Marx had four aces and six digs and Taylor Darling had one kill and two digs. Meagan Koss had three digs and Meredith had three aces. IN JUNIOR varsity action the Hurons defeated the Bulldogs 25-18, lost 13-25 but won game three 15-10 to take the match. THE HURONS travel to Onaway tonight (Thursday) for a makeup match with the Cardinals and will host their home tournament Saturday. The tournament will feature 10 teams and coach Smolinski is expecting big things out of the Hurons. ?I am looking for consistency. I am expecting them to win their tournament this year. We should show well this year,? said coach Smolinski.