Hale's Terra Kelso tips the ball to the Mio side during the Eagles' four-game win over the Thunderbolts.
Brent Baker
Mio's Julia Schneider goes up for a block during Tuesday's North Star League match at Hale.

HALE - Oct. 16, 2007 - Despite a few anxious moments, the Hale volleyball team won its North Star League volleyball match with Mio on Tuesday, overcoming a second-game letdown to prevail 25-13, 13-25, 25-20, 25-15.

The Eagles started fast as Tarra Caverly, Liz Lerczak and Terra Kelso took care of business on the front line, but the Bolts roared back with a strong second game that featured a 10-point serving run by Arielle Smith. Mio also succeeded in getting its front-row hitters -- Kimberlea Brown, Brittney Smutek and Julia Schneider -- untracked.

"The first game we came out and played great," said Hale coach Mandy Allen. "Our serving was on, our sets were on and we did a great job setting the ball up.

"the second game, we looked like a mess. Our best hitters were off ... some of our strongest servers were missing critical serves at crucial times."

The third game went back and forth, and an emphatic kill by Brown tied the game at 14-14. But after Mio lost service, the Eagles picked up the pace, with aces by Lerczak and Kassie Johnson and kills by Lercak, Caverly and Stacey Eno helping the Eagles pull out the narrow win.

"The third game (we) were still not playing strong and Mio's servers were giving us a run for our money," Allen said. "But by the fourth game we had stepped it back up and played a better game."

Ahead 15-12, Caverly placed a ball into Mio's back corner and Kelso and Lerczak followed with kills to open up an 18-12 lead. Rachel Maher's consecutive aces made it 22-13 and all but sealed the win.

Leading the Eagles statistically were Maher with 32 assists, Kelso and Caverly with 11 kills apiece and Johnson with 24 digs.

The Eagles improved to 17-10 (9-2 North Star League), and kept pace with Hillman (10-1 NSL), which defeated Posen to maintain its one-game lead atop the league. Mio dropped to 6-5 in league contests.

Hale hosts Arenac Eastern on Thursday.

Hale Stats: Kelsey Reilly 16 digs, 1 ace; Stacey Eno 1 kill, 14 digs; Rachel Maher 32 assists, 3 kills, 6 digs; Terra Kelso 11 kills, 4 blocks, 14 digs, 1 ace; Tarra Caverly 11 kills, 1 block 17 digs; Kassie Johnson 24 digs, 4 kills, 2 aces; Liz Lerczak 10 kills, 2 blocks, 9 digs, 2 aces.