Lauren Shepardson (above) and Ogemaw Heights had Class B district favorite Gladwin on the ropes in Saturday's championship game, but the Flying G's came back to claim an intense five-game match to end the Falcons' district title hopes.
Lauren Lahar drives one home against Gladwin on Saturday.
SSC's Brittany Riopelle gave Gladwin fits with her serving at the beginning of the Panthers' quarterfinal match with the G's.
Brent Baker
Oscoda's Margaret Negro and Tawas Area's Kristen Whitney vie for control during Saturday's district quarterfinal match.

GLADWIN - Mar. 4, 2006 - Ogemaw Heights was ready to slam the door on Gladwin in the fourth game of Saturday's Class B District 61 volleyball championship contest. But the Falcons left the door open a crack, and the Flying G's came roaring from behind to take a five-game victory and the district title trophy.

The 25-16, 24-26, 23-25, 25-23, 15-12 defeat was a tough one for the Falcons to swallow, as they appeared to have to have victory in hand after taking a 23-19 lead in the fourth game and needed just two points to finish off the match.

A couple of Ogemaw mistakes helped the Flying G's pick up some momentum, and with a team as good as Gladwin proved to be, that was enough to let the game and eventually the match get away.

"We lost a heartbreaker," said Ogemaw coach Diane Gillette. "We played with a lot of heart and desire and worked together on the floor. We had solid performances from the whole team and they never gave up."

Gladwin stormed to a 25-16 victory in the opening game and the Falcons looked a little overmatched. The Flying G's had vanquished Falcon nemesis Pinconning in four games earlier in the day, but Ogemaw shook off the loss and came back from a 19-17 deficit in the second game to take a 26-24 win that evened the match. Lauren Shepardson converted several kills in the run, but with the score tied at 24-24, Jamie Lucas placed a deep ball just inside the back line and Kelly Rosebrugh followed with the game-ending kill.

The Falcons carried their momentum into the third game, bursting to a 5-1 lead. But the G's front line of Jessica Morrish, Nichole Hagoort and Rachael McCowen reasserted itself and powered the G's to a 17-13 lead. The Falcons responded by stepping up their aggressiveness, initiating the action and taking back the game's momentum. Shepardson and Lucas again had key hits, with Mallory Collins adding a block.

Everything seemed to be going Ogemaw's way in fourth game. The Falcons went on a 4-1 run that made it 18-12, with Lucas, Shepardson recording kills and Collins picking up an ace. A Collins kill made it 23-19, but Hagoort had a block and a kill, Morrish added a floor-rattling kill and the Falcons gave up three points through their own errors, including two hits out of bounds to give the G's the final two points.

Despite having victory slip away when it was so close at hand, the Falcons came out firing in the fifth game, taking a 6-1 lead. Shepardson scored twice on the front line and Collins had another ace to keep the rally going.

This time, Morris spurred the Gladwin rally, with two kills and a tip that got her team back in the game. The Falcons last led 10-9, but Hagoort scored three times, Lisa Knoertzer turned in a block to put the G's up 14-11 and the Falcons final serve went into the net to end it at 15-12.

"We'd played them a couple of times this year and knew they would be tough," Gillette said. (Ogemaw met Gladwin four times, split one match and lost three in losing seven of nine games to the G's before Saturday). "Their middles were good, but I think our net players did a nice job of slowing them down.

"All in all, it was a fantastic season."

The Falcons (30-15-4) were led by Shepardson's 38 kills and 28 digs; Collins with 22 kills, four blocks and seven aces; Holly Wangler with 46 assists and 18 aces; Laura Budge with 43 assists; Lucas with 20 kills, Rosebrugh with 19 kills, Ashley Killinger with 64 digs, Alicia Brown with 29 digs and Sam Thorson with two blocks.

Gladwin (40-10) takes on Freeland at this Saturday's Class B regional at Standish-Sterling.

The Falcons reached the final by defeating Oscoda 25-17, 25-13, 25-13 in the semifinals and Beaverton 25-14, 25-16, 25-10 in the quarterfinals.

Gladwin opened the day with what many thought would be the "true" championship match and took out NEMC co-champion Pinconning 25-15, 25-20, 22-25, 25-12. Gladwin controlled the action through most of the match, taking a 12-3 lead in the first game and not allowing Pinny any closer than eight points. The second game remained close throughout, though the Spartans only led once at 6-5 after Alyssa Gruszynski and Samantha Bellhorn put down successive kills that seemed to give Pinny the momentum.

But Gladwin game back to score the next seven points behind Morrish's serving and hitting and managed to hold onto the lead.

Pinny trailed the third game 16-8, but Gruszynski and Lauren Lahar powered the Spartans back into the match. Gladwin took a 5-0 lead in the fourth game, saw Pinny come back to within 12-11, then finished out with a 13-1 run dominated by Hagoort.

Pinny (20-33-1) was led by Gruszynski's 22 kills and 24 digs, Lori LaFave's 27 assists and Alisha Ouillette's 16 digs.

The Flying G's defeated Standish-Sterling in the semifinals 25-8, 25-16, 25-18. The Panthers took a quick 3-0 lead in the first game as the G's couldn't handle Brittany Riopelle's serving, but didn't let up once they got on track.

The Panthers put together a solid second game, leading 13-12 at one point with Rachel Hartwick blocking a number of Gladwin hits and Rebecca Beckers digging out several kill attempts by the big Gladwin front line.

Gladwin didn't let up and went on to finish both the second and third games with a flurry to earn their shot at Ogemaw in the final.

The most entertaining first-round game came between rivals Oscoda and Tawas Area, who engaged in a roller-coaster ride won by the Owls 25-19, 10-25, 25-23, 16-25, 15-12.

"We played hot and cold against Tawas, but at least we played hot for a game and then cold for a game," said Oscoda coach Linda Hennigar. "Lucky for us we chose the first, third and fifth games to play well. Even then we would commit several unforced errors that would allow Tawas to come right back into the game."

Deanna Boughner proved to be a thorn in the Braves' side, dominating the front line for long stretches of the first, third and fifth games.

The young Braves had strong frontline performances from Sarah Simmons, Michelle Revord and Kristen Whitney. But when the Owls needed points, it seemed like Boughner was in place to provide the finish.

"We served well (93 percent) and passed serve at 86 percent, our best for the season," Hennigar said. "We also did a better job passing free balls and digging our opponents' attack. Our blocking game also showed improvement but our attacking game was still not very consistent.

"It was still a good way to close the season out. The Tawas match was a hard-fought match by both teams."

Boughner had 20 kill spikes, five tip kills and 10 blocks in the Owls' two matches; Margaret Negro had 10 kills and, seven blocks; Katie Kapus had 30 points 23 digs and three aces; Jill Sanderson had 29 points and 20 assists; Emily Schwedler had 18 assists and Kori Copus had 22 digs.