TRAVERSE CITY -- Forest Area lived up to its nickname Tuesday.
The Warriors fought back from a two-game deficit and rallied one more time in the decisive fifth game for a marathon win over Suttons Bay in the Class C district opener at Traverse City St. Francis.
The Warriors (42-10-6) won the match 26-28, 21-25, 25-23, 25-15, 15-9.
"We learned a lot about our character tonight," Forest Area coach Ron Stremlow said. "We're not going to go down without a fight."
Forest Area was in a similar situation against Pellston in the regular season. The Warriors lost two close games and rallied to send it to a fifth set. There, they led 12-11, but wound up losing 15-12.
"I told our girls when we were down the first two games, 'Remember Pellston. It's never over with, so be ready,'" Stremlow said.
"(Pellston) took something from us, so we had to come back and take something else we wanted," senior hitter Mae Johnson said. "This was our second goal for the season, so we had to do what we had to do to get there."
With the win, Forest Area will play Kalkaska at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Class C semifinal. The other semifinal will pit St. Francis against Elk Rapids, which beat Glen Lake on Tuesday.
After the Warriors won the fourth game, momentum seemed to be in their corner. However, Suttons Bay came right back to take the first four points and force Stremlow to call a timeout.
It worked, as Forest Area took nine of the next 10 points for a 9-5 lead.
"It's such an emotional sport, once they took those two on us we had to try and pick ourselves up in a positive way," Norse coach Laurie LaCross said. "We let ourselves get down and we started to make mistakes. In a game of 15, you can't afford to do that."
Big streaks were a theme for the Warriors on the night. In the first game, they went on a seven-point run, they had an eight-point string in the second game and six straight in the fourth.
Being streaky, though, is not the norm for Forest Area.
"We usually have to fight for every point, point by point," Stremlow said. "The first two games, they got ahead of us and we had to come back. This (fifth) game, they got up 4-0, we took a timeout, broke serve 4-1 and momentum changed."
After the first two losses, Johnson put the team on her shoulders. She had six kills in the fourth game -- including the winner -- and added five more in the fifth.
"We definitely were not playing our A game," Johnson said. "We stepped it up, played our game and played with intensity. We've got to do what we had to do."
Johnson finished the night with 26 kills and 28 digs.
"When she stepped up, she took the game over," Stremlow said. "When she can play like that, it takes us to another level. We were fortunate she was in the front row when we needed her. We have other hitters that can carry the weight, but tonight she was on and we went right with her."
Chelsee Strine had 19 kills and 23 digs for the Warriors, Katie Johnson had 53 assists, Marissa Ingersoll had 29 digs and four aces, Camille Tornow had 18 digs while Ashley Czuk and Kassie Magee had strong floor games.
The Norse were plagued throughout the night by palming the ball.
"It's something that they didn't call through the season, so it really put a burden on my libero who does a lot of back-row hitting," LaCross said. "That effects her mentally, which effects other things. We were warned about it, but you get in the heat of the moment and you're playing your game. So unfortunately we got way too many calls."
Norse senior Emily Send had 21 kills and 11 digs while Hannah Olson had 14 kills and 12 digs. Justine Sourie had 48 digs, Kyra Shively had 37 digs while Angela Patterson Olson and Send were perfect serving.
Print this story
E-mail this story
