Shrine falls to No. 8 Cass City in quarterfinal
BURTON >> The third time was not the charm.
The roadblock remains the same.
For the third straight season, Royal Oak Shrine’s postseason trip has taken them to the quarterfinals in Genesee County, only to have them make the return trip back down I-75 after a season-ending loss.
This time, the opponent was a No. 8-ranked Cass City program that hadn’t been this far in a volleyball tournament since the 1976-77 season, but experience wasn’t much of a factor in the match at Burton Bendle High School, as the Red Hawks rolled to a 2520, 25-22, 25-18 win over the Knights.
“I was surprised because they did show up, and they played amazing at regional finals.
“And I think that was really difficult to watch the game that they played in regional finals, and a team that showed up to that game, in comparison to the team that showed up to this game,” Shrine coach Annette DeMartino said.
“I really was expecting them to come here with the mentally stronger game. A lot of them have been here — most of the team has been in this place already, in this spot of the tournament. … So I did expect a little bit more a little stronger mental game than we came out with.”
It did not help the Knights (18-7-1) that they played from behind most of the night, with the Red Hawks (39-8-3) figuring out ways to get leads early in all three sets.
But even when the Knights led 20-17 late in the second set, they couldn’t close it out. Cass City got a momentum-altering kill on a slide to Shelby Ignash, who then served out six straight points to put the Red Hawks up, 23-21, en route to an eventual 25-22 win.
“I think that we do really well when we’re up, and when we are confident we play our best game. Historically that’s been how we play is when we’re up, we’re confident when we’re down, it really takes a toll on our mental game,” DeMartino said. “And I think that’s what happened. I think they were down throughout most of the sets — they were up for a little bit in that second set, but they were down throughout most of the other sets. And I don’t think that we could bounce back in that mental game.”
Shrine led 9-5 in the first set, but Cass City would come back to tie it at 1414, then score six of the next seven to lead 20-15, splitting the remaining 10 points evenly with Shrine to go up 1-0 in the match. The Red Hawks led 8-4 in the second set before Shrine rallied to tie it at 12-12, then take a one-point lead on a five-point service run by Alice Mikula.
A big block by Mary Jones got the Knights the 20-17 lead, before the Red Hawks would turn the momentum with Ignash’s service run.
That momentum switch carried over into the third set, when Cass City jumped out to a 7-2 lead on the Knights, then pushed it to a 10-3 lead. Shrine cut it back to 16-14, then a four-point service run by Norah Tisko got it back to 19-18, but the Red Hawks ran off the final five points of the match on the serve of Kacee Gray.