ATLANTA - March 4, 2006 - Less than 24 hours after wrapping up their first-ever North Star League title, the AuGres-Sims volleyball team romped to their first-ever district title.

The Wolverines swept Arenac Eastern 25-16, 25-10, 25-11 in the semifinal match and beat Atlanta for the third time in two days, 25-13, 25-13, 25-11.

For the Wolverines, who actually haven't won a girls league title of any kind since 2001 (softball) or a district since 2002 (basketball), the whole experience has been somewhat surreal.

"I feel like I'm still waking up (from a dream)," said junior Amanda Nixon on Monday. "It's hard to believe that we're the ones who have done this. People we don't even know keep coming up to us and congratulating us."

"We never won any tournaments at all before this year," said Jamie Taylor. "We didn't even have a banner on the wall. We won the Mio tournament, and now we'll have a banner and the NSL and district trophies too."

The Wolverines were 12-13-4 overall last year, 7-7 in the North Star League, which ranked as one of the better seasons in the decade-long history of the program. But head coach Jeri Christie's renewed approach to conditioning and team-building has paid off with an unbeaten run through the league and a 24-match win streak that dates to Dec. 17.

"It's nothing like when we were sophomores," said Jodi Bilacic, who with Angela Porn and Charisse Morris is one of three seniors on the team. "We've put so much more time and effort into practice, and our teamwork is so much better."

"There's rumors going around that we have different coaches for every position," Nixon said. "But the huge difference is having Jason (Warden) as a lifting coach."

"We really owe a lot of thanks to our coaches," said junior Sam Baron. "They've been a lot more serious about things this year, and we have been too."

One of the keys to the Wolverines' success has been their closeness away from volleyball, that has translated to better teamwork on the court.

"We're close friends on and off the court," Taylor said. "We pump each other up and if someone has a problem, we're able to talk about it and help each other out. We do a lot of team-building stuff and that's helped us have a different attitude."

The Wolverines also credit their fan base, which has grown larger and louder as their win streak lengthened.

"We've never seen so many fans," Bilacic said. "The community has been awesome. It was amazing how many people even came up to Atlanta to see us play."

"It's cool that people have come and realized they can have fun watching us play, and they keep coming back," Taylor added.

"Yeah," said Jessica Stevenson. "We really 'dig' our fans."

On the court, Saturday's district tournament contests didn't provide much of a challenge for the Wolverines.

Taylor was 22-of-23 serving with eight aces and 18 service points with 14 assists and eight digs; Bilacic had four attacks and three aces; Porn had eight attacks and six aces; Baron had five attacks; and Morris was 9-of-9 serving with four aces against AE.

In the final, Morris was again perfect from the service line (10-of-10), as was Toria Pendred (7-of-7), while Taylor and Bilacic each had three aces, Porn had 15 attacks and seven digs, and Taylor had 23 assists, 28-of-30 serving with three aces and nine digs.

The Wolverines (25-4-2), stay close to home Saturday, March 11 as they play in a Class D regional tournament at Arenac Eastern.

Where the district tournament wasn't a big challenge, the Wolverines face a tall order in the regional tourney as they take on second-ranked Leland (62-4), which last season swept every match through district, regional, quarterfinal and semifinal rounds before losing the state title match to Battle Creek St. Philip. The Comets are led by hitters Alisha Glass and Jennifer Hecht and setter Whitney Grant. The six-foot Glass and Hecht were both Class D all-staters last season.

Frankfort plays in the 11 a.m. opener against Marion. The Wolverines play at approximately 1 p.m., following the first semifinal match.

Semifinal winners play following the Leland - AGS match, with the tourney winner advancing to a quarterfinal match at Beal City against the Hillman regional winner.

"We just need to play our game," Stevenson said. "We can't worry about what they do."

No matter what happens Saturday, though, the Wolverines seemed to agree on one thing:

"This," Bilacic said, "is such a surreal feeling."