Posen makes it back-to-back league titles

by Peter Jakey, Managing Editor

Near perfect in the league, the Viking volleyball team received some help last week in wrapping up an outright North Star League (NSL) championship. As Posen was taking care of business with win No. 12 in the NSL, Hillman took down the Vikings’ closest challenger, Mio. The outright title would have eventually gone Posen’s way, the celebrating just started earlier than expected. It is the second league volleyball championship in school history and the second in as many years.

The Vikes dominated Au Gres in front of a good-sized parents’ night crowd. Along with the varsity and junior varsity (J.V.) volleyball parents, the parents of the football players also were acknowledged between games Tuesday night since there was only one home football game this fall. It was Posen?s last home match of the season. “WE WANTED to show how good we could do in our last home game and we came out with intensity,” said Janice Ciarkowski. Posen won game one 25-12, the second narrowly 25-22, and sealed the deal in the clincher, 25-8.

“It was one of our main goals,” said Cheryl Romel of winning the title. “Since last year we wanted to do it again.” “We know it is a wonderful tribute to our hard work,” said head coach John Dietlin. “It’s a great validation to everything that we’ve tried to do. “We understood from game one that we need to take each game at a time, each point at a time, and if we do what we can do and play our game, victories will take care of themselves. That’s what happened this year.”

The Vikings were at Onaway for the annual Presque Isle Championship (past press time), at Fairview Thursday and then to Hale Tuesday for the district opener November 4 at 6 p.m. against the winner of the Hale vs. Fairview match. The district final is Friday, November 6.

“We have more work to do,” the coach said. “We are not satisfied with it (league title).” IT WAS A nice start Tuesday night, jumping to a 5-0 lead. Ciarkowski’s kill made it 10-3 and after April Miller’s ace between two defenders, the lead was 14-6. Lindsey Bartz followed with a solid kill for a nine-point advantage. Ciarkowski had a tip, a kill and two aces down the stretch.

Au Gres went up 6-2 in game two, before the red and white came back to tie, and with a Leanne Buczkowski kill, Posen led 9-8 and never relinquished the lead. At 23-22, Dietlin called a timeout to not let the game slip away, and it paid off as the Wolverines hit their serve into the net and Ponik scored an ace for point 25. Ciarkowski had four kills in the game and a block. She had eight kills on the night to go w

ith seven aces.

In game three, Bartz paced the squad at the serving line with eight straight (13-3) points. Buczkowski blasted a kill through the block attempt of the Wolverines? best player, before getting aces on point 22 and 24 (24-8). Buczkowski would end the night with five kills. The scores at Atlanta last Thursday were, 25-23, 17, 13. Buczkowski had 10 kills, Ciarkowski nine, while Bartz added five. Romel kept the offense going with 19 assists. THE J.V. swept Au Gres in short order 25-11, 13, 15-3. Paige Lewandowski had 13 aces and one kill, while Emily Delekta had four aces and four assists.

Other stats are as follows: Cari Stricker nine aces, one kill; Anna Couture three aces, one dig and three assists; Gabby Rauls one ace, one dig and two kills. Stricker also ended game two with 12 straight service points. The Vikings edged Atlanta 28-25 in game one, lost game two 25-13 and came back to win a close one 17-15. Lewandowski had four aces, three digs and two kills, while Delekta contributed four aces, three digs, six assists and one kill. Judy Romel was a force at the net with five kills. Couture had four aces, three digs and three assists.

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