By GARY PIKULA

News Sports

Correspondent

ROGERS CITY - The Rogers City Hurons won the 2009 Class C district volleyball championship with a helping hand from Shelby Schleben, who raised her season total to 184 aces with another 11 Friday night in a 3-1 victory over Whittemore-Prescott (25-23, 21-25, 25-18, 25-8).

"(The team) was really calm before the game, which actually made me a little nervous," said Rogers City Head Coach Kristy Smolinski.

Amanda Smolinski had a great performance totaling 36 digs and 15 kills on the night. Rebecca Peacock helped out with 13 kills, while Logan Schuiteman had 28 digs and Schleben had 24 digs to go along with her 11 aces.

Game one was a back-and-forth battle from start to finish. Neither team could pull away as the biggest lead of the game was four by W-P. The Hurons were down early on, but took the lead midway through the game. W-P battled back to take a 17-16 lead, but couldn't hold on as Rogers City answered right back, tying the game at 19 and eventually going on to win.

W-P tied the match at 1 each by winning game two. The Cardinals, who never trailed in the game, jumped out to an early 4-1 lead and didn't look back the rest of the way.

"We tried to run that play (where everyone goes up in the air and swings but only one connects) a few too many times the second game. We weren't really clicking, so that probably wasn't the best time to do it," said coach Smolinski.

Game three proved to be the turning point of the match. The Cardinals again jumped out to an early lead before Rogers City tied it up at 9. Whittemore-Prescott held the lead at 14-9, but the Hurons refused to go away. Rogers City took the lead at 15-14 and would not give it up the rest of the night. The Hurons won game three and carried the momentum into game four.

"We were trying to play (W-P's) game by tipping, and that isn't our game," said coach Smolinski.

The Hurons won game four decisively. They took a 4-1 lead early on and cruised to the chamionship from there.

Rogers City plays McBain on Tuesday in the regional semifinal in Charlevoix.

"I really don't know too much about McBain. I did get to watch a little bit of a tape on them today. I think they've been ranked all season. It will be a challenge for us, but I think if we play like we did in the third game today we'll be alright," said Smolinski.