Ogemaw Heights senior Jordan Foster and the Falcons celebrate following the their five-game victory over Pinconning on Wednesday.
Pinny's Sarah Schumacher goes up for a hit as the Falcons' Emily Sheltrown tries to block.
Brent Baker
Selina Tabayoyong makes a lunging save of a Pinny hit with the type of effort exhibited by both squads throughout the two and a half hour match.

PINCONNING - Oct. 17, 2007 - Ogemaw Heights volleyball coach played on the 1983 Pinconning team that started the Spartans' 25-year string of North East Michigan Conference titles.

On Wednesday, her team took a big step toward making that title theirs.

The Falcons' 18-25, 25-13, 27-29, 25-17, 16-14 victory gives them a two-game lead over the Spartans heading into the league finals round-robin, in which every team will get a shot at one another one more time to decide the league title.

Pinny was on the verge of pulling out the gut-wrenching win when Chelsea Gruszynski placed a ball in the back corner of the Falcons' court to give the Spartans a 14-11 lead in the fifth and deciding game.

"I told the girls to just keep on pushing themselves," Gillette said. "Just keep pushing. Never give up on the game."

Considering the Falcons climbed out of a similar hole against Standish-Sterling a week earlier, it wasn't a tough sell.

The Falcons regained possession, bringing Tiffani Rouse to the service line. With rally-score rules, of course, a bad serve would have ended the match. But Rouse had run off a string of 14 straight serves in Ogemaw's dominating Game 2 win and came through with an ace to cut it to 14-13.

The Spartans were able to return the next serve, but hit the ball out of bounds. Meaghan Tackebury placed the ball to the Pinny back line for the go-ahead point, and the Spartans weren't able to return Rouse's final serve of the match.

After splitting the first two games, Pinny seemed to have things going its way after pulling out the 29-27 third game. Neither team led by more than two the whole way, with both teams almost desperately contesting each point with long volleys and diving saves. Pinny hitters Sarah Schumacher and Lori LaFave picked up their share of kills, but the Falcons also got their share of blocks from Emily Sheltrown, saves from Rouse and Selina Tabayoyong and Jordan Foster's whatever-was-needed-at-the-time plays to keep things going.

Ogemaw had a chance to wrap up that third game with a 26-25 lead, but Samantha Bellhorn keyed a final 4-1 Pinny push with a kill and a game-ending ace.

The Falcons took what could have been a major blow to their psyche and controlled Game 4 from the outset.

"Again, I just told them it wasn't over," Gillette said. "We just needed to work our system, forget our mistakes and keep pushing ourselves."

The system -- and that short memory -- worked almost without a hitch in the fourth game as Lauren Gillette kept feeding Tackebury, who picked up four kills, including a key point after the Spartans had cut a 16-6 lead to 18-13, and another to put the Falcons up 24-16.

Pinny (11-21-1, 3-2 NEMC) opened the match with a 25-18 win, taking the lead for good at 10-9 as Schumacher and Devyn Podsiadlik kept the Falcons off-balance with their play at the net. The Falcons (29-14-8, 6-0) rebounded with their dominant second game after Rouse took over serve down 5-1 and didn't give it up until the Falcons held a commanding 16-6 lead.

The vocal crowds played a key role too -- a bit too much of one at times as one point was taken off the board after officials ruled crowd noise had disrupted an Ogemaw serve. The highly-charged atmosphere, for the most part, only fueled the all-out play in one of the better atmospheres for a volleyball match this season.

Considering the balance in the league so far this year, it seems unlikely that anyone will survive the league finals day-long gauntlet unscathed. Standish-Sterling forced both teams to five games, Oscoda defeated the Spartans earlier this year and John Glenn and Tawas are both dangerous. Even Whittemore-Prescott, in the midst of a rebuilding year, could throw a wrench in someone's works in the full-day event.

Ogemaw Stats: Meaghan Tackebury 15 kills, 2 aces; Jacie Lucas 8 kills, 13 digs; Lauren Gillette 8 kills, 28 assists, 12 digs; Jordan Foster 5 kills, 28 digs; Tiffani Rouse 20 digs, 4 aces; Selina Tabayoyong 13 digs.

Pinnhy Stats: Chelsea Gruszynski 5 aces, 30 assists; Sarah Schumacher 4 aces, 15 kills, 2 blocks, 2 block asst; Lori LaFave 15 kills, 9 digs; Lauren Lahar 17 digs; Samantha Bellhorn 9 digs.