TAWAS AREA - Oct. 21, 2009 - Tawas Area's volleyball hadn't won a North East Michigan Conference championship since 1980.

Given the chance to clinch at least a share of that elusive title, the Braves didn't let their opportunity pass them by. Tawas defeated an Ogemaw Heights squad that could have forced a three-way tie atop the league 25-21, 19-25, 25-21, 25-20.

"Twenty-nine years is a long time," said Tawas coach Carol Elowsky. "We really didn't want to go down to Pinconning next week with a must-win situation."

The Braves built leads of 12-3 in the first game and 8-3 in the second game, building most of their advantage with their power combination of Molly Stoll and Dana Kolnitys on the front line.

"We struggled at the net hitting the ball and making plays," said Ogemaw coach Diane Gillette. "Tawas did a great job hitting at us and we gave them way too many free ball opportunities."

Ogemaw came back with a 15-4 run to take control of the second game behind some key blocks from Sara Meier and Jacie Lucas and strong outside hitting from Paige Bachelder.

Lucas' early string of aces helped the Falcons to a 9-3 lead in Game 3, but Stoll and Kolnitys keyed a 12-1 Tawas run and Katie Challenger added an ace. With Tawas nursing a 22-21 lead, Stoll finished things off with three straight kills.

Ogemaw briefly led the fourth and final game, but several self-inflicted errors got Tawas back in the game. A pair of Kolnitys kills and two aces from Christie Cooper gave the Braves the lead for good at 15-11. Challenger and Stoll each had kills in a four-point run that made it 24-18, and the Falcons never recovered.

"Our serving was strong but we had too many unforced errors which hurt us in the long run," Gillette said.

The victory completed big turnaround for the Braves (14-15-4, 8-1 NEMC) who were 2-8 in league play last season. It also ensures that the league will have had three different league champions in the three years since Pinconning's 25-year title run ended in the 2006-7 winter season.

"This group really plays well together," Elowsky said. "They don't get rattled. It's like they don't even see the scoreboard; they just love to play."

The Braves and Falcons (12-14-7, 6-3) haven't seen the last of each other, either, as they drew one another to play in their first district tournament match, Nov. 4.

" We will get another chance to play them at the district level," Gillette said. "We know what we must do and we have two weeks to prepare."

"We'll be back at them," Elowsky said. "Both teams had people playing sick tonight.

"When we play them again at districts, it could be very different if everyone is at 100 percent."

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Ogemaw Stats: Sara Meier 6 blocks, 5 kills; Paige Bachelder 7 kills, 25 digs; Andrea Gillette 9 assists, 3 aces, 13 digs; Jorie Lucas 8 aces, 14 digs; Lexi O'Neil 3 aces, 11 digs.