Jill Sanderson sets up one of her 35 assists at Saturday's Gladwin Invitational
Linda Eyer
Katie Kapus bumps one up at Saturday's volleyball tournament in Gladwin.

GLADWIN - Jan. 7, 2006 - The Oscoda volleyball team isn't seeing many wins come its way, but coach Linda Hennigar said that the team's improvement was evident during the Owls' six matches Saturday at the Gladwin Invitational.

The Owls dropped four matches in pool play: 22-25, 23-25 to Tawas Area, 16-25. 15-25 to Ogemaw Heights, 16-25, 10-25 to Whittemore-Prescott, and 10-25, 10-25 to Gladwin.

The Owls gutted out a 25-18, 34-32 victory in single-elimination play against Tawas before Gladwin ended Oscoda's day with a 11-25, 10-25 defeat.

"This was a day of highs and lows," Hennigar said. "We started out very sluggish and tentative against Tawas. Our defense was not very sharp and we committed many mental errors."

One of the adjustments the Owls have made is adding libero position (new to MHSAA volleyball this year) to their lineup. The libero is a defensive specialist that can only play in the back row and to whom normal substitution regulations don't apply. With sophomore Riley Shelton taking the spot for the first time during last Wednesday's NEMC opener, the Owls showed increasing comfort with the new lineup.

"In the second match of the tournament (Shelton) came into her own," Hennigar said. "Our serve receive stat greatly improved and defensively we did a much better job of keeping the ball in play.

"Even though we did not score many points our mistakes were coming at the net, so we were finally giving ourselves the opportunity to score."

An injury to Shelton forced the Owls to switch back to their non-libero lineup, but she was later able to return to the court. Despite the shifting lineups, the Owls' serve receive percentage improved from Wednesday's 47 percent to 61 percent on Saturday.

Despite going winless in pool play, the Owls bounced back in single elimination to sweep Tawas in two games, including the 34-32 come-from-behind thriller to cap the match.

"Our play really took a step up from the earlier match (against the Braves)," Hennigar said. "We attempted 38 attacks in the first match to 61 in the second. Our serve receive improved from 68 percent to 84 percent."

Individual leaders for the Owls (2-16-2) included Deanna Boughner with 28 kill spikes, 12 blocks and 40 service points; Margaret Negro with 15 kill spikes and 13 blocks; Jill Sanderson with 39-of-40 serving, five aces and 35 assists; Emily Schwedler with 17 assists; Katie Kapus with 13 kill spikes, 6 aces and 15 digs; Shelton with 17 digs; and Laurie David with 38-of-39 serving and four aces.

The Owls host Lincoln-Alcona on Wednesday, Jan. 11 and travel to Gaylord for a Saturday tournament on Jan. 14.