Coming out on the winning end

Coming from behind to achieve victory was the pattern for Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn in its War Eagle Conference volleyball match with MMCRU. Despite trailing in all but one set, the Hawks came back for the 3-1 victory on Oct. 15 in Hartley.

The closeness of the set scores (19-25, 25-21, 25-23, 31-29) mirrored the two teams.

"Going into the match, we knew that MMCRU would be a fairly similar team to us," said Hawk coach Cheryl Kroese. "We talked about needing to make sure we covered the court well defensively and making sure we stayed aggressive defensively. We did a really nice job of that."

The Royals led from the start of the first set and extended the margin to as many as nine points. Although H-M-S came up short, a late rally set the tone for the rest of the match.

Trailing for much of the second set, the Hawks forced a 20-20 tie and then pulled away to even the match. A fast start in the third set put the Hawks in front by five. They lost the lead, but eventually went back in front and hung on for the win.

The teams traded leads throughout the fourth set. The Hawks were on the brink of defeat three times, came back to take a 27-26 lead and traded points eight times before closing out the win.

"The girls stayed determined, and that final set was one of those back-and-forth battles where you are glad to come out on the winning end," Kroese noted. "I'm very proud of the entire team. They played hard, worked together and came away with the victory."

H-M-S recorded 49 kills, led by Abby Douma with 20 and Kylee Schiphoff with 13. Others contributing kills were Eliza Tewes with six, Moriah Otto with five and Eva Stammer with three. Frankie Mohni put up 44 assists.

On defense, Douma had two solo blocks and an assist, Schiphoff had a solo block and four assists, and Tewes had three assists.

Lindsey Van Es led the back row defense with 28 digs, followed by Tewes 22, Mohni 20, Otto 14 and Addy Sheeler 12.

The Hawks' serving efficiency was 94 percent. Tewes was 27-of-28 with two aces; Sheeler and Van Es were 16-of-16; Schiphoff was 15-of-16; Otto was 13-of-14; and Mohni was 8-of-11.

• Fall to rated Westerners

H-M-S concluded the regular season with a 3-0 loss to Akron-Westfield (1A No. 11), on Oct. 17 at Akron. Set scores were 25-15, 25-18, 25-18.

Douma's 14 kills led H-M-S, which also had five kills from Schiphoff and three from Stammer. Mohni recorded 23 assists.

Serving leaders were Sheeler 15-of-15, Tewes 7-of-8, Otto 7-of-9 with two aces, Schiphoff 6-of-8, Mohni 5-of-5 and Van Es 5-of-6.

Douma also led the defense at the net with five block assists and Otto had two. Tewes came up with 15 digs, Mohni had 10, Van Es had seven, Otto had six, and Schiphoff and Sheeler each had four.

The Hawks (7-13) finished the season with a record of 4-6 in conference matches. They opened Class 2A regional play at West Lyon on Oct. 23. Results will be reported next week.