Pinconning earned its first NEMC victory of the season Wednesday with a sweep of Whittemore-Prescott. Above, W-P's Annie Thompson (7) gives her best against six-foot Spartan Devyn Podsiadlik.
Brent Baker
Pinny's Lori LaFave winds up for the kill against Whittemore-Prescott on Wednesday.

PINCONNING - Sept. 19, 2007 - Pinconning's volleyball team went back to the drawing board after last week's surprising loss to Oscoda. And while the Spartans' took awhile to get going Wednesday in their 25-15, 25-19, 25-9 victory over Whittemore-Prescott, the early results seem to be paying dividends for the Spartans.

"We've had an all-new lineup since Saturday (at the Mitten Bay tournament, where the Spartans one two and split one of six matches)," said Pinny coach Annie Diener. "It's just starting to come together."

The Cards hung with the Spartans for most of the first game, but Pinny's front line of Devyn Podsiadlik, Sarah Schumacher and Lori LaFave began to assert themselves. The Cards also had trouble returning Lauren Lahar's serves any time it was her turn through the rotation, and Lahar served for seven points and two aces as the Spartans broke away from a 17-14 lead to win the opener 25-15.

"We did stay right with them at the beginning of the first game, but fell flat shortly after," said W-P coach Helen Loomis. "We're still missing serves and not adjusting on defense.

"The long break without a match, missing one of our starting middles due to a family member death and adjusting to the lineup change certainly was to our disadvantage."

At 4-4 in the second game, Pinny used a couple of quick-set kills by Schumacher and Emme Duranczyk to seize momentum and pulled away. The Cards tried to come back from a 22-13 deficit and pulled to within 23-19 but could get no closer.

Pinny used an 10-point run while behind the serving of Samantha Bellhorn (three aces) to take control of the third game.

The Cards (2-9, 0-1 NEMC) are at the Oscoda tournament on Saturday, while Pinny (7-15-1, 1-1) hosts it second home invitational of the year.

W-P Stats: Kayla Camp 5 points, 1 ace; Chloe Moraitis 4 points, 1 ace; Annie Thompson 2 assists, 4 digs; Katie Eymer 2 block kills, 2 spike kills; Chelsea Jasman 2 spike kills, 1 block kill.