PINCONNING - Sep. 30, 2009 - Whittemore-Prescott's volleyball squad turned in one of its best performances in a couple of seasons Wednesday, defeating a Pinconning team that is in transition 25-16, 26-24, 17-25, 25-23.

W-P coach Helen Loomis was very pleased with her team's showing after last week's disappointing performance against Ogemaw Heights.

"What a pleasant change from last week's match," she said. "Our outside hitters (Leighanna Loomis and Ali Bronson) were both on tonight. (We had) minimal hitting and serving errors.

"(Everyone) pulled together when the games got close and played with a lot of hustle and determination."

The Spartans (2-3 NEMC) were playing their first match under new head coach Brianna Frisinger, who has had just two days of practice with team since Brandon Little resigned the position late last week.

W-P (6-5-1, 2-4 NEMC)  came right out with a confidence building first game in which the Cards led almost from the outset, and in the second game came back from a 19-17 deficit to outscore the Spartans 9-5 down the stretch and take a 2-0 lead.

But after the first game, Pinny did a better job of setting up outside hitters Chelsea Adcock and Emme Duranczyk, and Rebecca Bills and Cassidy Vieau in the middle, as the Spartans had late leads in each of the final three games.

As hard as the Spartans were hitting, the Cards' back row was equal to the task as Jordan Maxwell, Kayla Camp and Brittney Winkle dug out plenty of Pinny hits to keep the ball alive.

Pinny got back in the match with its third-game win, but W-P went on an early run in Game 4, and led until a Duranczyk ace put the Spartans up 17-16.  Ashley Hribek ran off three straight aces to build the Pinny lead to 21-17, but the Cards got kills from Loomis, Staci Ostrander and Kayla Camp to spur a 6-2 run that tied it. The Spartans gave up the final two points on hitting errors of their own.

Bronson had 10 kills, Loomis had seven aces, Camp had eight idgs and Maxwell had 26 assists to lead the Cardinals.

W-P Stats - Ali Bronson 12 points, 1 ace, 8 digs, 10 kills; Leighanna Loomis 10 points, 7 aces, 8 digs, 8 kills; Chelsea Jasman 10 points, 4 kills; Brittney Winkle 8 points, 1 ace, 6 digs; Kayla Camp 8 digs, 3 assists; Staci Ostrander 6 kills; Jordan Maxwell 26 assists, 7 digs.

Pinny Stats - Kelsey Beck 13 digs; Emme Duranczyk 14/15 serving, 15 digs, 2 blocks; Chelsea Adcock 9/10 serving, 2 aces, 13 digs; Rebecca Bills 4 blocks; Chelsea Gruszynski 14/14 serving, 2 aces, 23 assists, 5 digs; Hailey Heideman 13/13 serving, 2 aces, 11 digs; Ashley Hribek 10/12 serving, 4 aces, 4 digs; Cassidy Vieau 8/10 serving, 4 blocks, 6 digs; Sarah Lijewski 10 digs.