Edwardsburg spikers finally click to bring home regional crown

Published 5:55 am Friday, November 10, 2023

By Scott Hassinger

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PARCHMENT — The Edwardsburg volleyball team picked the right time to finally put everything together.

Sarah Strefling’s Lady Eddies were hitting on all cylinders Thursday as they put an end to Otsego’s season with a 25-22, 25-22, 23-25, 25-20 win in the Division 2 Regional championship at Parchment.

Edwardsburg (27-10-4) advances to face No. 2-ranked Grand Rapids Christian in Tuesday’s state quaterfinals at 6 p.m. at Charlotte High School.

It’s Edwardsburg’s first regional volleyball title since 2020.

“The great thing about this team is that all 14 of these girls can come into the match at any time and make some kind of contribution for us,” Strefling said.

A couple of unforeseen circumstances in the match forced Strefling to make some lineup changes. One of the Lady Eddies broke her glasses and another had leg cramps in her heel and had to sit out for a brief time before returning to the playing floor.

“That’s how this whole season has went for us. We had kids that saw action for us tonight who haven’t played in the last few matches, but they came in and did a nice job for us. We haven’t had a solid and set lineup the whole season. I guess its working for us though,” Strefling laughed.

Otsego (35-10) jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead in the opening set. Edwardsburg rallied, however, and the first set would be tied a total of 10 times before the Eddies broke a 22-22 tie with three consecutive points to close out the set.

Freshman middle hitter Ella Laskowski recorded two of those points off kills and the other Edwardsburg point came off an Otsego hitting error for a 25-22 win.

Senior Lexi Schimpa served the first three points, including a pair of aces, in set two to help Edwardsburg out to an early 3-0 lead.

Kills by sophomore outside hitter Sarah Pippin, Laskowski and Drew Glaser, along with a pass into the middle open court by Schimpa, pushed Edwardsburg’s lead to 7-2.

Following an Otsego timeout, freshman Sophia Kuntz served two straight points, one being an ace, to increase Edwardsburg’s lead to 9-2.

With her team leading by eight later on in the game, Glaser delivered an ace to give the Lady Eddies set point at 24-15.

Behind the strong serving of freshman Littel, Otsego rallied to record the next seven points to pull within two points of Edwardsburg, 24-22.

Pippin’s tunderous kill down the middle of the court on the next point closed out the second set and put the Lady Eddies up 2-0.

“Going up two games on them at the start of the match was huge for us. We went five games with them and Three Rivers during the league season. I just feel that we are better off winning matches in four games. That’s what we strive for,” Strefling said.

After building a quick 5-1 lead in the third set, Edwardsburg eventually found itself deadlocked at 17-17 when sophomore Mya Eberlein recorded a tip at the net.

Otsego’s senior libero Aly Aldrich stepped up to the service line and recorded four consecutive points, giving the Bulldogs a 21-17 lead.

Eberlein’s key block late in the set helped Edwardsburg force a 21-21 deadlock. Key blocks from Olivia Dennis and Kya Shier and a kill from Dennis gave the Bulldogs set point at 24-21. Freshman Brooke Smalldon’s kill gave Otsego the 25-23 win in the third set, lessening the Bulldogs’ match deficit to 2-1.

The score in the fourth set would be deadlocked six times before Edwardsburg made its move.

Glaser’s kill and ace finally put Edwardsburg in front 22-20. Two unforced errors by the Bulldogs made it 24-20 in the Lady Eddies’ favor. Glaser fired off an ace to end the game and match with a 25-20 win to make the final score of the match 3-1.

Glaser had a memorable night again with her dominance at the net with 25 kills, four digs, one ace, and one block.

“Otsego is a very solid defensive team. We had a great Wednesday practice where we worked alot on our shots. We really studied film and recognized where we weren’t getting points. Energy is a big part of getting points and we had to incorporate that more. We lost some of that until the fourth game. It was tough to lose that third game and we just told everyone that we had to be mentally strong. To come back with that same kind of high energy in the last set was extremely important,” Glaser said. “Having passion for the sport and watching a lot of film are super important factors to keep going at this point of the tournament.”

Pippin added 16 kills, 15 digs and two blocks. Eberlein totaled three kills and five blocks.

Purlee led Edwardsburg’s attack in the back row with 22 digs.

“This is like a dream come true to win regionals. Our serve-receive lacked a bit, but I have confidence in our hitters that they will put the ball down when it counts,” Purlee said.

Schimpa, the Lady Eddies’ starting setter, recorded 39 assists to go with three aces, seven digs, one block abd three aces.

“I finally starting connecting really well with all of my hitters tonight. My hitters have started giving me more feedback. This feels amazing to win a regional title which we haven’t done since my freshman year,” Schimpa said.

While pleased with the win and being able to move onto next week quaterfinals, Strefling said her team still has a few things to iron out before the next round of the tournament.

“I feel like we didn’t play our greatest defense at times and our serve-receive wasn’t as amazing as it could’ve been tonight. But for these girls to figure it out and win is really big. They all have their moments and that’s what it takes to be a great team at this point of the season,” Strefling said. “Otsego doubles our crowd size and after they won that third set they had gained a lot of momentum. At the end of the day you have to show up and play volleyball no matter who is watching.”

Strefling also pointed to the Lady Eddies’ service game as another key factor

“Lexi was very aggressive serving the ball tonight, along with Drew and Sophia. We can sometimes get complacent on the end line. We knew where their hitters like to go and we just had to make adjustments to our defense. I had kids playing back row tonight who don’t usually fill those spots. I’m really proud of everyone on this team. People forget that we have four freshmen and two sophomores on this team,” Strefling said.

Otsego head coach Kelsey Swoboda had nothing but praise for Edwardsburg, along with her own team after the match.

“Edwardsburg is never done fighting until they reach 25 points or someone wins by two points. They have some strong attackers. We started rolling better once we were able to slow them down and rally some points for us. Unfortunately, they (Eddies) were able to regroup and finish it out strong,” Swoboda said.

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