Oakland Christian tops Carney-Nadeau in four, moves to final
BATTLE CREEK » The Lancers are one step away.
Oakland Christian moved one win away from completing their three-year prophecy of a state championship on Friday thanks to a 25-23, 21-25, 25-19, 25-20 win over Carney-Nadeau in the Division 4 semifinals at Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek.
“I wouldn’t say it was pressure, it was more like a dream,” Oakland Christian senior Katie Hopkins said of pursuing this three-year goal. “We didn’t want to put pressure on anyone, we just wanted to work hard and play together as a team. Now that we are (in the finals), we just want to keep pushing harder and want to win even more.”
Oakland Christian was a team of just freshman and sophomores in 2018 and have been building toward their goal of getting the school its first state championship in the 2020 season.
The final year of the journey provided plenty of curveballs, including seeing seven members opt out of the final week of play due to a COVID-19 rapid testing program.
Still, the Lancers persevered and find themselves playing for a state championship on Saturday at 10 a.m. against Battle Creek St. Philip, a program that has won 20 MHSAA state championships.
“When we restarted I decided I was going to stop looking at other teams and I am just going to control what I can control on my side,” Oakland Christian coach Brian Theut said of playing St. Philip. “What these girls are doing is unreal. We are going to go out, and this is our deck of cards. This is the hand we were dealt. Hopefully we prevail. Our big motto has been all year that it’s not ‘me, me, me,’ it’s ‘us.’”
The first set didn’t look to be going Oakland Christian’s way on Friday. Carney-Nadeau jumped out to a 5-1 lead and the Lancers trailed throughout. The deficit was as great as eight points at 19-11.
Oakland Christian found itself down 23-18 before rallying to score the final seven points of the set, winning 25-23. Riley Sparre got the go-ahead kill and then Hailee Ide finished the rally with an ace.
“I felt like we kind of gave that first set away,” Carney-Nadeau coach Steve Kedsch said. “We just made too many errors.”
The second set was pretty competitive throughout. It featured a total of 11 ties. Oakland Christian held a 14-10 lead at one point thanks to a pair of aces from freshman Abigail Franey. However, the Wolves would fight back and even up the frame.
The Wolves scored the final five points of the set, with three
kills coming from Taylor Kedsch in the rally, giving them the 25-21 victory to even the match.
Oakland Christian controlled most of the third set after jumping out to a 9-3 lead. Page had eight kills in the set and finished it off by finding a spot in the Carney-Nadeau defense from the back row.
In the fourth set, Oakland Christian got out to a 7-1 advantage thanks to two more aces from Franey.
“You never know what you are going to get with a freshman,” Theut said of Franey. “Abbie did things all year. She was just that kid that never stopped. Once she kind of figured out what her role was, she just took off.”
The Wolves would cut into the deficit, but Oakland Christian led the rest of the way. Page would be the one to score the matchending kill, which was fitting. The senior finished with a match-high 21 kills.
Kaylie Morga added 10 kills in the win while Anna
Frazee had eight. Katie Hopkins tallied 40 assists and 14 digs from the setter position.
Hailee Ide led the defense with 21 digs while Page and Olivia Colletti each had 18. As a team, Oakland Christian finished with 11 aces, including Franey’s four.