Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos from the match, and to hear post-game comments from Ava Maki, Hope Varoni, and Coach Dan Porath.
ESCANABA---The Bay College Norse volleyball team closed the regular season in Escanaba Wednesday night with the annual Pink Out Night for breast cancer awareness.
The Norse won the match over the Alpena Community College Lumberjacks, 25-21, 26-28, 25-21. and 25-21.
A large crowd dressed in pink was on hand , a crowd that included volleyball players from Gladstone and Bark River-Harris schools.There were bake sales and raffles that raised 825-dollars for Stephanie Spaulding, a local woman dealing with cancer.
“I think it was good,” Bay freshman Ava Maki of Marquette said. “It was our Pink Out Night and everyone filled the stands. There was a lot of energy in the room.”
“The people really showed up and that really helped us,” Norse freshman Hope Varoni of Bark River-Harris added. “Good energy for our game, and it was for a good cause. It's to play for something bigger than ourselves. It was great having them (Bark River kids) in the stands. It was nice of them to show up. They were cheering all the time.”
The second set is one the girls would like to have back because of seven service errors in that set. And a tough call on a Haylee Gatien kill that would have won that set, 25-23, but the chair called a net violation. Bay lost that set and had to keep fighting,
They did that by cutting down on service errors.
“I think that's why we won the match,” Maki said.
“We were definitely better (serving) tonight,” Varoni said. “We just stayed calm back there, put some pressure on them, but didn't overdo it.”
Stephenson's Mia Hauser put the match away with a blast down the line off an Alpena player. Maki led the Norse with 12 kills. Hauser added eight.
Bay finished its season with the program's first-ever winning record at 13-11, and they finished even at .500 (6-6) in MCCAA North Conference play.
The Norse ended in a tie with North Central Michigan for third place, but lost the tiebreaker to the Timberwolves.
The Norse still advance to the NJCAA Great Lakes A Regional in Grand Rapids, but will now have to play a “play-in” match next Wednesday afternoon against either Lansing Community College or Kellogg Community College. Those two teams each have road matches on Thursday. Wednesday's game is scheduled for a 4:00 first serve.
“I try not to look at record and see if we're going in the right direction,” Norse Coach Dan Porath said. “The first two years, we were in the regional (with a losing record). Last year, we weren't. Now, we're back. So, that's a positive step. Once you're in, you never know. You give yourself the opportunity. We're really trying, we'll play our best, and we'll give somebody a fight.”
The Norse have not beaten the top teams, but they have given them a tussle at times, taking a set against both first place Grand Rapids and second play Muskegon last weekend downstate.
“That's something for us to build on,” Porath said. “If we can take a set from them, anybody we play first (Lansing or Kellogg), we've got a real good chance.”
“I think we're prepared and we're just gonna give it our all,” Varoni said.
