Posen wins ‘Pink Out’ match over Mio
by Peter Jakey–Managing Editor
The 2014 Posen volleyball team concluded its home schedule with a signature win. They took down Mio in four games on “Pink Out” night in P-Town.
It’s a sure sign that the Lady Vikings have made great strides the last couple of months as Mio won in three in the first meeting, Sept. 3.
The Vikings, who won the first two games, had a chance to flip the script and do the same to the Thunderbolts, but a late rally fell short. Down 24-17, the girls got it to within three before falling.
Head coach Paige Lewandowski said the comeback showed some mental toughness that will be needed in the state tournament. “It would have been easy to throw in the towel at that point. So, I was glad to see that.”
The coach was equally pleased with the way her squad pulled out the fourth game when it was even most of the way.
“I told them ‘you are a different team than you were at the beginning of the season,’ and they proved that today, ” said Lewandowski.
Mio coach Amy Wyckoff agreed with that assessment.
“Their serving was on tonight. We had a hard time with serve receive. The hitting is a lot better than when we saw them in the first game,” said Wyckoff. It was Mio’s third conference loss.
The victory comes only days after the players and their rookie coach won the North Star League’s Little Dipper Division last Thursday at Au Gres.
“At this point in the season the girls are comfortable with each other, they are comfortable in themselves,” said Lewandowski.
The Vikings maintained an early lead in game one with Mio and their confidence grew from there. The final score was 25-21.
Amy Buczkowski had two early aces in game two. The second made it 9-4.
It was a run with Monica Bartz at the serving line midway through that gave Posen a comfortable lead. She had four aces sandwiched between a Hunter Kaszubowski kill.
Mio cut it to two down the stretch, forcing Lewandowski to call a timeout. Coming out of it, Jolene Reese’s kill made it 23-20. The teams traded bad serves before Bartz stepped out of the way of a long serve for point 25.
The Vikings took a 5-1 lead in game three, but let that slip away as the visitors got to game-point with a seven-point lead. With the Reese at the serving line, the red and white rallied for four straight and had the crowd behind them. It was 24-21 before Mio finally got its first win of the night.
Posen was on top early in game four leading 6-3 before Mio went up 11-9. Jenna Hincka had a tip for a point and an ace to get the lead back. The game was tied at 17 when Hincka scored on another tip. Kaszubowski’s blast through the middle of the defense made it 19-17.
Mio came back again to tie and take the lead, 22-21, before the Vikings put it away, 25-23.
“They really put their heart on the court and played hard for me today,” said Lewandowski.
Buczkowski had four digs and five aces. Hincka and Bartz both had five aces each. Bartz led the squad with six kills and was followed by Chiara Raganato with five. Mercedes Kowalski had 18 assists.
Thursday’s game, which was scheduled to be played at home, is at Whittemore-Prescott and the county tournament will be Tuesday in Rogers City for both the junior varsity (JV) and varsity.
The Vikings swept Au Gres, 25-17, 25-20 and 25-22. Kowalski and Reese had six aces, while Kaszubowski had three. Hincka had five digs. Raganato had
“That was the strongest hitting game we had all season,” said Lewandowski.
The Posen JV lost Tuesday to Mio. Posen started off slow and struggled to make their serves count. Mio won the first game of the match, 25-6. Posen continued to improve throughout the next game. The Vikings fell short only by six points, 25-19.
The last game, the girls improved in serves and in passing to win the last game of the match. The score was Posen 15, Mio 12.
Lindsey Randall, Camille LaTulip and Pia Siering all had two aces. Siering and LaTulip also had 2 kills apiece.
“We have been battling illnesses and absences the last two weeks,” said coach Laurie Maynard. “In spite of that, we have been steadily improving.”