One highly ranked volleyball team from this area is going to have its season end far sooner than hoped. For the fourth time this year, Mendon and Bronson square off on the court, this time with a Class C district championship at stake.
The Hornets, ranked No. 1 in the state, beat Union City 25-20, 25-14, 25-13 Thursday in a semifinal match at Bronson. The host Vikings, ranked No. 6, swept Quincy in three sets to also advance.
In typical fashion, it took Mendon the first game to warm up its engine.
“They were tougher than we thought,” Hornets coach Kathy Trenary said. “They played us really well the first game. They took the lead. Serve receiving was not really good for us and we were pulling [Loryn] Baughman off the net; she wasn’t getting around enough to get the ball in the right spot. Once we kind of settled down a little and made better passing we were able to get to our offense. We forced them out of their offense and they started giving us free balls more and not good contact on balls, so that kind of turned the tide.”
Brooke Howard fired 11 kills, had two aces and finished with 15 digs for Mendon. Jordan VanOss recorded 10 kills and 11 digs, Jackie Friel posted 11 digs, Danielle Parsons added a pair of aces, Baughman ended the night with 37 assists, Megan Leighton notched eight ills and Alexis Russell recorded six kills.
Trenary said her girls have a knack for adjusting on the fly against unfamiliar teams.
“I think they actually do it better than I do, and [assistant coach] Bill’s [Trenary] good at diagnosing as they go,” she said. “It’s probably just a total team effort, including the coaches on the bench. But the players have a really good idea of what needs to happen, especially against teams we’ve played before. Bill is really good at figuring out what we need to do. Tricia VanOss is also on the bench and she sees a lot, too. Usually everybody sees the same thing.”