Volleyball roundup: Cards come up big in Pellston
The Onaway Cardinal varsity volleyball team defeated Pellston on the road, won the St. Ignace tournament and defeated Gaylord St. Mary this week. All the wins were good ones after the Cardinals lost their first Ski Valley Conference match in five years last week.
Tuesday in Pellston the Cardinals won game one 25-17 before dropping game two 23-25. Game three was a battle and the Cards came out on top 28-26 then went on to win game four 25-23.
“We let them back in during the second set. They are always competitive with us. I really like how we hung in there when it was tight. We didn’t always do the right thing; but we hung in there and got the win,” said coach Steve Watson.
Senior Vydailya Letts tied a school record in the match with six blocks. She also added 10 kills, four assists and 10 digs.
Senior setter Taylor Ehrke had 12 kills, 25 assists, 23 digs and two blocks on the day. Senior Alison LaFave had nine kills and 25 digs. Junior Jaclyn Nash had three kills, six assists, four aces and 26 digs.
Saturday the Cardinals were at the St. Ignace tournament. In the first match of the day, the Cards split with Cheboygan dropping game one 23-25 but winning game two 25-14. After defeating Cedarville 25-12 and 25-20 the Cardinals split with Pickford 25-11 and 22-25 to finish second in their pool.
Moving on to bracket play, the Cardinals defeated Engadine, a team that was undefeated on the day, 25-19 and 25-18 to make the finals.
The finals match was a rematch with Pickford and the Cards won game one 25-19 before dropping game two 24-26 but took the final game 15-9.
“We were really up and down all day. In the second game against Pickford in the finals, we were up 24-19 but couldn’t put the game away,” said coach Watson.
Ehrke had 24 kills, 60 assists, seven aces, 49 digs and five blocks on the day. Letts had 10 kills, nine aces, 29 digs and nine blocks. LaFave added 32 kills, 11 aces, 38 digs and three blocks.
Last Thursday at home against Gaylord St. Mary, the Cardinals won 25-22, 25-16 and 25-18.
“It was a good rebound conference win. When you set a big goal to go undefeated in the conference and you don’t accomplish that you might falter; but we came back and played solid to get the win,” Watson said. Last week his team fell to Forest Area in conference play.
Junior Maddie McLean had 10 kills, two aces and seven digs on the day. Ehrke had three kills, 21 assists and 12 digs. Nash added two kills, six aces and five digs.
The Cardinals are hosting No. 8-ranked Marine City Cardinal Mooney tonight (Thursday) at home. The Cardinals are now 21-5-3 on the season and are currently ranked No. 6. They will also host the home tournament this Saturday.
Hurons face NSL
conference foe tonight
Rogers City (11-8-1) faced some strong competition in Saturday’s St. Louis Invitational. Rogers City defeated Coleman 2-1, (23-25, 25-21, 15-5), Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart 2-0 (25-16, 25-22) before losing to Alma 0-2 (26-28, 19-25) in pool play.
“We got off to a little bit of a slow start with Coleman, but once we figured out what we were doing, we had everything pretty much down pat,” said Jackie Quaine.
That gained the Hurons a berth in bracket play where they again faced Alma and lost 0-2, (17-25, 23-25).
“They are moving the ball all over the place from line-to-line. I am very happy with that. We are moving in the right direction. We aren’t winning tournaments, but we are improving and I am happy with our defense,” Quaine said.
Sophomore middle hitter Taylor Fleming led the team in kills with 42 on 84 attacks with 19 errors. She also had five solo and two assisted blocks in the tournament. Kayla Rabeau had 21 kills on 80 attacks with 11 errors. She had 3 solo and five assisted blocks
Hannah Dittmar had 21 kills on 72 attacks with 9 errors. She led the team with seven ace serves. Erika Peacock had 45 assists while Hannah Fleming had 17 and Kyrsten Altman added 13. Overall, the Hurons had a 15 percent kill efficiency rating and served at a 92 percent clip.
Rogers City has a busy week hosting Hale tonight (Thursday) and playing at Posen Tuesday with Alcona coming to town Oct. 6. The Hurons travel to the Suttons Bay tournament Oct. 8.
The Rogers City junior varsity team hosts a tournament Saturday. Teams and time of action were not available.
Posen earns third
at Oscoda
The Lady Vikings finished third at the Oscoda tournament over the weekend.
Posen got Hillman in the first match of the day and were determined to play better than the Sept. 13 match up in Posen.
It ended up in a split, 20-25 and 25-19. Hillman would go on and win the tournament. Up next was a scrappy Au Gres squad who handed the Vikings a pair of losses, 18-25 and 19-25.
“Our passing was not very consistent,” said Posen head coach Laurie Maynard. “We started playing timidly and went to shoots and tips instead of hitting. That seemed to be the pattern for the rest of the day.”
The next match was against the home team, Oscoda.
“We dominated the first game 25-12,” said Maynard. “The second game we again resorted to tipping and shooting to lose 23-25.”
The fourth match was against Hale.
“We had better serves and communication and defeated Hale with scores of 25-22, 25-15,” she said. “
The last match of pool play was against Whittemore-Prescott. Posen split the match, winning the first, 25-16, and losing the second, 23-25. That placed the Vikings in bracket play against sixth-place Oscoda. It was a win, 25-16, 25-12.
The victory then put Posen up against top seeded Au Gres, which resulted in the final loss of the day, 19-25, 18-25.
The squad travels to Lincoln-Alcona High School today before heading to the Mackinac Island tournament on Saturday. Posen’s record is 6-4, with three splits.
Posen got Hale on the home floor last Thursday and dispatched the visitors in three, 25-21, 25-10, and 25-14. Cami LaTulip had five aces and five blocks, while Brianna Kuffel had four aces. Sam Lenard had three aces.