Brethren downs Onekama in district semis

Posted by Dylan Savela, Manistee News Advocate

BEAR LAKE — Rachel Edmondson felt her team was playing its best volleyball of the season heading into the Class D district tournament.

The Bobcats ended the regular season on a roll, and the first-year coach just wanted to make sure they stayed consistent across the board:

Consistent with their serves.|
Consistent with their movement.
And consistent with their energy.

Check, check and check. The scores to Brethren’s win over county rival Onekama in Tuesday’s district semifinal couldn’t have been more consistent either, as the Bobcats topped the Portagers 25-15, 25-15, 25-14.

With the victory, Brethren earned a spot in Thursday’s district championship at 7 p.m. against Frankfort in Bear Lake.

“We were definitely serving well,” Edmondson said of the semifinal win. “We had a little rough patch with it in the third set, but the serving by far was what helped us stay consistent. We attacked at the net too,” she added. “We always knew where the ball was and we did a good job of setting it up for our hitters.”

Namely, Brethren’s Annie MacNeil and D.J. Johnson proved to be troublesome for Onekama both with blocking and attacking MacNeil led the team with five kills to go with a trio of aces at the service line.

 “Brethren was able to set it up a lot more than we were tonight,” Onekama coach Sherri Slater explained, “where we were kind of playing back on our heels and had a little trouble with our passing and serve receive.

“That’s just kind of a domino effect,” she added. “When you’re having trouble with those things, your whole game is going to have problems.”

Onekama’s Elizabeth Bergren led her team with five kills and three aces while Nicki Slater had 10 assists in the match. Kaylan Fitch added five aces with three kills.

Brethren was able to establish early leads in each set which gave it comfortable cushions to work with down the stretch. Edmondson was pleased with her team’s ability to limit unforced errors.

“I told them I don’t want to give away any free points and we really didn’t do a lot of that today,” she said, citing strong serve percentages especially from Hailey Guinan and Sarah Costello. “We played scrappy when we needed to, but then we were able to gather ourselves and play controlled — as far as getting the ball to our setter and then getting it to our hitters.”

Onekama, who was also under a first-year head coach in Slater, ends its season short of its goals. But Slater is pleased with the progress the Portagers made under the new system.

“The girls meshed so well as a team even though everything was new to them this year,” she said. “I know it was quite an adjustment for them, but I thought they all did very well with it, and especially with each other. They were very supportive of one another, and that’s probably the most important thing to me.”

Posted by Dylan Savela, Manistee News Advocate

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