OSCODA - Six area teams converged at Oscoda for the Owls' annual volleyball invitational on Saturday. Standish-Sterling finished the day at 5-0, with Whittemore-Prescott the runner-up at 3-1-1 and Oscoda third at 2-1-2.

Standish-Sterling

SSC had its best day of the season thus far, not allowing any team to score more than 17 points in a set.

The Panthers topped Hale 25-13, 25-12; AuGres-Sims 25-8, 25-12; Alcona 25-13, 25-13; Whittemore-Prescott 25-15, 25-13; and Oscoda 25-17, 25-16.

"The girls were very excited about playing so well," said SSC coach Becky Murphy. "I think we needed this spark to show them the true potential they have and build up their confidence after a slow start to the season.

"They are definitely ready to go now."

SSC Stats: Jessica Fenner 11 blocks, 51 attacks, 2 digs, 7/10 serving; Chelsea Szostak 15 attacks, 16/19 serving; Katie Ouillette 2 assists, 16 attacks, 4 digs; Kierstin Sanch 10 assists, 50 attacks, 4 digs, 38/41 serving; Christina Proulx 4 assists, 11 blocks, 49 attacks, 7 digs, 13/17 serving; Karina Pierce 79 assists, 2 attacks, 3 digs; Brooke Bartlett 119 assists, 5 attacks, 4 digs, 46/48 serving; Christy Schott 3 assists, 21 attacks, 11 digs, 4/4 serving; Megan Heiser 9 assists, 66 digs, 24/30 serving; Kelsey Prohaska 5 assists, 5 blocks, 23 attacks, 11 digs, 49/56 serving.

Whittemore-Prescott

The Cardinals (5-4-1 overall) had wins against Hale (25-23, 25-11), Alcona (25-13, 25-18) and AuGres-Sims (25-13, 25-17), lost to Standish-Sterling (25-15, 25-13) and split with Oscoda (28-30, 28-14).

"I thought the girls played pretty well throughout the day with the exception of the Standish games," said W-P coach Helen Loomis. "Standish has improved a lot from two weeks ago and caught us flat-footed.

"In the one other loss with Oscoda we had too many serving errors at critical times."

Loomis said gaining experience was the key to W-P's own improvement.

"Our skills are there," she said. "We just need to become more consistent, especially with our hitting and serving. Despite the loss to Standish, it was fun to get second.

W-P Stats: Kayla Camp 34 points, 12 aces, 6 assists, 19 digs; Brittney Winkle 20 points, 3 aces; Leighanna Loomis 30 points, 11 assists, 25 digs, 19 kills; Jordan Maxwell 19 points, 5 aces, 37 assists, 18 digs; Chelsea Jasman 28 kills, 33 digs, 2 blocks, 5 assists; Staci Ostrander 14 kills, 1 block; Ali Bronson 14 kills; Alyssa Gielda 9 kills.

Oscoda

The host Owls took third place, claiming wins  over Alcona (25-8, 25-14) and Hale (25-21, 25-20), splitting with Whittemore-Prescott (30-28, 25-14) and AuGres-Sims (25-15, 22-25); and losing to champ SSC (17-25, 16-25).

Oscoda (6-3-2) coach Laura Franklin was happy with her team's showing.

"We are getting better every game," she said. "The girls are starting to play together well."