Linda Eyer
Arielle Beliveau (top) and Jill Sanderson line up at the service line for Oscoda at Saturday's NEMC tournament.

OSCODA - Feb. 25, 2006 - The North East Michigan Conference round-robin tourney turned out to be the Oscoda volleyball team's season in a nutshell.

The Owls had periods of strong play alternating with stretches of ineffectiveness.

"It was once again a pretty typical day for us on the volleyball court," said Oscoda coach Linda Hennigar. "We would play well for a period of time and then would go through a period of time where we committed a string of unforced errors."

The Owls picked up their first NEMC victory of the season -- 26-24, 16-25, 25-23 over Whittemore-Prescott. But if there was one match that typified their season, it was the loss to co-champion John Glenn. The Owls upset the Bobcats 25-22 in the first game, but lost the second and third games 13-25, 4-25 to drop the match.

The Owls also lost to Tawas Area 23-25, 20-25; Standish-Sterling 10-25, 25-16, 14-25, Pinconning 15-25, 11-25, and Ogemaw Heights 17-25, 22-25.

"We usually serve fairly well and we struggled in that department, serving at an 88 percent efficiency compared to (the usual) 95 percent," Hennigar said. "Defensively we were able to keep the ball in play but were not accurate enough in our passes to give the setters an opportunity to get the good set out to the hitters.

"The brightest part of our day was the effort and success of our middle hitters. Both Deanna Boughner and Margaret Negro played very well all day long. Not only did these two players contribute 56 of the team's 72 kills they also played tough defensive games both on and off the net."

Boughner finished with 31 kills, five blocks and two tip kills, while Negro had 25 kills, six aces and 50 service points. Jill Sanderson added 44 assists and 54 service points and Riley Shelton (39) and Katie Kapus (33) led the team in digs.

The Owls (1-11, seventh place NEMC) play at Whittemore-Prescott in a triangular match on Wednesday, then are at Gladwin for district tournament action on Saturday, when the Owls open against Tawas Area at approximately 11 a.m., following the Ogemaw Heights-Beaverton contest.