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Pinconning's Sarah Schumacher (14) and Alyssa Gruszynski (12) go up for a block during the Spartans' victory over John Glenn to finish off their run through the NEMC volleyball finals on Saturday. |
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Renee Wangler (29) picks up a kill during Ogemaw' Heights victory over John Glenn. |
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Pinconning's Shelby Resmer (13) tries to block Oscoda's Margaret Negro (32) |
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Ogemaw's Jordan Foster (20) and Standish-Sterling's Terra Hartley (4) go head-to-head at the NEMC volleyball finals on Saturday. |
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Tawas Area's Molly Collier (1) tries to get a hit over the arms of Oscoda's Emily Schwedler (13) at the NEMC finals on Saturday. |
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Brent Baker |
Tawas Area's Christina Ranger (12) tries to block Whittemore-Prescott's Catherine Daniels. |
STANDISH-STERLING - Feb. 24, 2007 - A quarter century ago, the current group of Pinconning volleyball players was still seven or eight years from being born. That was also when the Spartans started their run of North East Michigan Conference championships, a run that reached 25 straight on Saturday after the Spartans held off the rest of the league on Saturday, going 6-0 on the day to wrap up yet another league title.
Ogemaw Heights and Whittemore-Prescott entered the day tied with Pinny atop the NEMC with 5-1 records, but the Spartans were able to defeat both of them, while John Glenn handed W-P a second loss on the day and the Cards topped Ogemaw to ensure that both finished in a tie for second, two games behind the league-winners.
"It's amazing that these kids weren't even born when this legacy started," said Pinny coach Marion Hornacek. "It's quite a feat, and at the beginning of the year I wasn't sure we'd be able to be here (as league champs)."
The Spartans didn't enter Saturday's round-robin with an air of invincibility; rather, they had their lone league loss, to Whittemore-Prescott, to both motivate them and give their opponents hope of knocking them off.
"That was in the back of our minds," Hornacek said. "We wanted to avenge that a bit. But the main thing about today was that we showed a lot more maturity in the choices we made. We did a good job of doing the smart thing and exposing other teams' weaknesses."
The turning point of the day came early on, after Ogemaw Heights took a 25-16 win in their opening game with Pinny. The Spartans came back with a 25-18 win of their own, then came back from as many as six down in the third game to take a 25-23 win.
"Once we tied them we were able to buckle down," Hornacek said. "I wasn't sure what I was going to get after they lost that first game; they were very quiet. Not panicked, but not fired up like 'We need to go get them now.' It just seemed like a very mature reaction that I know now is a good one for them to have."
"It was a very good match," said Ogemaw coach Diane Gillette, saying that losing the third game in such a fashion was "heartbreaking."
"I really thought we were going to pull it off," Gillette said. "The momentum changed with the last couple of points, and we couldn't hang on. I think that loss took a little wind out of our sails, but we had to press on and keep fighting to end up second."
Pinny went on to sweep Standish-Sterling, earned some payback with their 25-22, 25-18 sweep of W-P and swept Oscoda before taking a tough three-game match from John Glenn, 26-24, 15-25, 25-13. By then, though, the title was already in the Spartans' hands, thanks to the Cardinals' 25-16, 26-18 win over Ogemaw.
Pinny now gets to host most of the same teams - all but Glenn and W-P - as it opens district tournament play next Saturday.
Ogemaw, despite not being able to knock off Pinny, took some satisfaction in setting a school record with its 34th win, and now has 36 for the year.
"We had some things we wanted to accomplish," Gillette said. "(We wanted) to beat Pinny, take the lead in the NEMC and break the school record for wins.
"We made our goal of wins per season, however we didn't beat Pinny for the NEMC title.
"Playing Tawas right after the Pinny match was hard because of the emotions of the first match. I was a little concerned for the rest of the day, but I knew the girls would come together and regroup. All in all, I think the girls did a fantastic job and should be proud of their accomplishments."
The Falcons came back from a first-game loss to John Glenn to beat the Bobcats in three games, 17-25, 25-12, 25-19, then regrouped after a 20-25 opening-game loss to Oscoda to beat the Owls 25-18, 25-9 and Standish-Sterling 25-17, 28-26.
Whittemore-Prescott's 25-18, 25-16 win over the Falcons enabled the Cardinals, who had their championship hopes doused by a 16-25, 25-23, 14-25 loss to John Glenn. The Cards then lost in two games to Pinny before finishing strong with wins over Tawas and Ogemaw.
"I don't believe the girls started playing well until the second half of the day," said W-P coach Helen Loomis. "We had too many serving errors and defensive mistakes. We didn't play well at all against John Glenn.
"Despite this, I was very pleased with the match we gave Pinconning even though we lost. The girls really pulled it together against Ogemaw, playing very consistent."
John Glenn's 4-2 performance for the day was highlighted by its win over W-P, while taking both Ogemaw and Pinny to the full three games.
Standish-Sterling's defeated Ogemaw and Tawas Area to, winning twice as many league matches on Saturday as it had during the regular season.
Oscoda, which went winless in six league matches during the regular season, had the kind of up-and-down day that has left coach Linda Hennigar scratching her head more than once this season. The Owls one their first NEMC match, a 27-25, 25-17 victory over Tawas, but also won the first game over Ogemaw and the second game over Glenn. In fact, the Owls came within a point of upsetting the Bobcats, losing 27-25 in the third and deciding game.
"Sometimes we set the court in flames; other times we drown in our own mistakes," Hennigar said. "In the third game (against Glenn) we had a 24-21 lead.
"That game took the fire out of our play as we just didn't play with any intensity (against W-P or SSC). We finally gained some momentum against Tawas ... and went on to take our first conference victory.
"Against Ogemaw we gave them a scare by taking the first game, but then the mental errors took over and the Falcons went on to win the next two games."
Tawas went winless on the day, getting swept five times before taking SSC to three games in their final match of the day.
Pinny finished with an 11-1 NEMC mark, with the Falcons and Cards tied at 9-3. Glenn finished 7-5, SSC 3-9, Tawas 2-10 and the Owls 1-11.
Glenn travels south to the Cass City district on Saturday, while W-P goes north to MIo's Class C district. The rest of the league convenes in Pinconning.
