Cardinals move on to district finals against Rogers City tonight

by Angie Asam-Staff Writer

The Onaway Cardinals varsity volleyball team made short work of the Wolverine Wildcats Wednesday in the district semifinals, defeating them 25-6, 25-5 and 25-14 in just 34 minutes to solidify their place in the district final today (Friday) at 6 p.m. in Rogers City. Rogers City defeated Posen 25-19, 15-13 and 25-17 to move into the district final.

Onaway is currently ranked No. 3 in Division IV while Rogers City is ranked No. 7. The teams have met twice this season with Onaway taking wins in both matches. Most recently the Cardinals defeated the Hurons 25-20, 25-21 and 15-13 at the Presque Isle County Championships in Posen Oct. 30.

“We are looking forward to playing in the district final. It will be a big match for us. I expect the stands to be full with Cardinal fans and Huron fans. We have been waiting to start the postseason run all season,” said coach Steve Watson.

After getting a sideout Wednesday, Devin Bristley served 12 consecutive points to start game one against Wolverine. Bristley used four aces, two kills from Mariah Ehrke and a kill from Lexi Szymoniak to get the Cardinals out to a 13-0 lead as Wolverine struggled on serve receive.

Onaway gave the ball back to the Wildcats after being called for being in the net but never looked back as they continued to score and took game one 25-6 in just over 10 minutes.

Game two started out much more competitive, but with the score at 5-3 Jade Galer stepped to the service line and dialed up an ace. After Wolverine again struggled to receive the serve the score was 9-3 and Szymoniak and Brisltey had back to back kills before another ace and a Szymoniak block of an overpass to make it 13-3.

Wolverine would call a timeout and Elise Arkwood had a good tip for a kill before Bristley added another kill and a Wolverine error made it 16-3.

Galer still stood at the service line and rattled off three straight aces followed by a Bristley kill to make it 20-3. After two Onaway errors Arkwood notched a kill to make it 21-5 and stepped to the service line. A Wolverine hitting er

ror, a Szymoniak kill and two aces later game two was finished 25-5.

Game three was much of the same as Onaway was in control of the game from the onset and took it easily 25-14 while some of the younger players got to see the floor for the Cardinals.

Bristley led the hitting attack with six kills. She also added five aces. Szymoniak had five kills. Mariah Ehrke had four kills, six aces and three digs. Taylor Ehrke had three kills, 21 set assists, two aces and six digs. Galer had two kills, five aces and two digs. Arkwood had three kills and two aces and Sarah Fullerton had three kills and two digs.