Posen fends off Alcona to stay undefeated; league mark at 4-0
by Peter Jakey– Managing Editor
The Posen volleyball team is off to one of its best starts in school history. During what has been a historic tough stretch on the schedule, the Vikings swept Mio and Hillman in North Star League action and rolled into first place. They won both matches in three games. Tuesday, Posen fought off a pesky Alcona squad to win the match three games to one, to keep their undefeated record intact. The Vikings are 4-0 in the league and 8-0 overall. The only game the Vikings let slip away from them was the first, where they led by as many as six points, 18-13. Alcona came from behind to score the final seven points to win, 25-22. The Tigers would get mid-game leads in both game two and four, but Posen was undaunted and came back to lock up victories over an improving Alcona team. The final scores in the final three games were 25-17, 25-16 and 25-19.
?WE LOST the momentum in the first game and ended up losing that game,? said head coach John Dietlin. ?I’m real proud of the way the girls came back in that second game. It was the same problem again. We started losing momentum, but we came back.? In game two, Posen built an 11-6 lead when Victoria Wozniak dropped a perfectly place ball along the net. Alcona came back and outscored the Vikes 9-1, but with the score at 14-17, Nicole Purol ignited the comeback with a kill. She then went to the serving line and rattled off the next 10 points. Included in the run were back-to-back aces from Purol, an acrobatic tip at the net by Tina Mulka for a point and a kill by Janice Ciarkowski. All tied at a game apiece, the Vikings never trailed in game three. When Alcona made it close at 12-11, Purol came up with another ace. At 14-11, she had a kill. At 19-13, Purol blistered an unreturnable cross-court kill for a seven point lead, 20-13. On the play she had another kill attempt blocked. The ball went straight up and the Alcona player found the ball and hit it again, but right to Purol who smashed the ball into the floor. During this time, Autumn Reese was serving seven straight points to close out the game.
IN GAME four, Alcona took advantage of several Posen mistakes to go up by four, 6-10. Purol seemed to be the catalyst again. Emily Smolinski and Purol had back-to-back kills to make the score 11-13, and at 12-14, Purol threw a wrinkle in her game and tipped the ball over at the net instead of spiking it. Alcona wasn?t ready for it. The play got the biggest cheer of the night. A Mulka tip tied the score at 15, while Cheryl Romel set up Ciarkowski on a nicely executed kill to put Posen up 16-15. Wozniak had a cross court kill and an ace to build the lead to four, 20-16.When the Vikes needed to finish off the Tigers, Reese stepped to the line and smashed an ace to close it out. Purol led the team with eight aces and 10 kills. Other stats follow: Mulka three ace
Purol had nine kills in the match. Other stats follow: Ciarkowski four kills; Schmitz three kills; Reese four aces; Mulka three digs and 11 assists; Romel three digs. ?Anytime we play Mio or Hillman, especially Hillman, we expect a dog fight,? said Dietlin. ?They played us very tough.? They’ll be at Atlanta tonight, trying to keep it going before returning home Tuesday against Au Gres.
THE JUNIOR varsity won two games to one. The scores were 17-25, 25-17 and 15-4. Leanne Buczkowski had seven aces, while Leann Strzelecki had five aces and two kills. Lindsay Ponik also added five aces.