GLADWIN - Jan. 6, 2007 - The Oscoda volleyball team split two matches out of five contests played at the Gladwin Invitational on Saturday and turned in solid performances against all but Ogemaw Heights on the day.

"Even though we didn't earn any wins at the tournament, we did split with two of our opponents, which is an improvement for us," said Oscoda coach Linda Hennigar. "We still have trouble playing with consistency. We will play well for several rallies and then we will fall completely apart for the next seven rallies. This is typical behavior for a young team, but we now have 19 matches under our belts, so we should be eliminating some of our bad decisions on the court that cause us to give away unearned points for consecutive rallies."

The Owls fell to tournament champ Ogemaw 13-25, 12-25; split with Tawas Area 25-13, 23-25; split with Coleman 19-25, 25-20; lost to Gladwin 19-25, 25-27 and lost again to Coleman 15-25, 21-25.

"For some reason we fall apart when we face Ogemaw," Hennigar said. "They hit and serve well but we should be more competitive with them than 12 or 13 points."

Leading the Owls were Margaret Negro with 16 kills, 5 tips, 16 blocks, 6 aces and 34 service points; Jeri Carl with 10 kills; Emily Schwedler with 2 tips; Heather Patterson with 7 blocks and 17 digs; Briana Findeisen with 6 aces, 41 service points and 15 digs; Arielle Beliveau with 5 aces, and 38 points; and Aubrey Thurston with 16 digs. The Owls also served 95 percent for the day with a team serve receive efficiency of 75 percent.

"Margaret and Jeri were once again our offensive strength," Hennigar said. "But Heather, Briana and Emily are becoming more involved in our net attack. We have several players who have the potential to hit the ball very well and they do so in practice, but we have not been able to carry this aggressiveness over to competition.

"Defensively we struggled ... Overall play showed improvement and many team members are showing real improvement in both their skill technique and in their court playing technique."

The Owls (2-15-2) play Lincoln-Alcona on Wednesday.