FRANKFORT -- With an historic victory on the horizon, there was no slowing the Traverse City Christian volleyball team.
The Sabres scored the first 11 points of the third game to put a cap on 25-20, 25-18, 25-8 win over McBain Northern Christian in the Class D regional final at Frankfort Thursday night. The win gave TC Christian its first-ever regional title.
"I'm so excited," TC Christian senior Joni Yahr said. "We won the first two games and the third game is usually the toughest for us. We just decided to put the pedal to the metal, finish it and not play any more games."
While there weren't any more games for TC Christian (40-13-8) on this night, there is at least one more match in the Sabres future. Christian faces Bay City All-Saints -- a 3-0 winner over Burton Genesee Christian in the Deckerville regional -- in Tuesday's quarterfinal at Clare.
"This season has been like a dream season," TC Christian coach Russ Hansen said of his first 40-win campaign. "We started off strong, hit a little lull and then finished strong.
"Who knows (about the quarterfinal)? We play like this, who knows?"
McBain Northern Christian coach Jay Simon, whose team reached the state semifinals last season, wouldn't put it past the Sabres.
"You have to give a tremendous amount of credit to TC Christian," Simon said. "They played out of their minds tonight. It's hard to beat a team when they play like that.
"I look at the stats and I don't feel like we played that poorly. It was far more about how they played, far less about how we played."
That was really evident in the final game, which began with an 11-point service run by Yahr. Four of those points came from hits by Lindsay Kostrzewa kills while Arielle Kanitz accounted for three points on a pair of swings and a tip.
The Comets finally put an end to the run with two straight points, but TC Christian followed it with seven more in a row, capped by a Maura O'Brien kill. Kara Romstadt accounted for two points herself on back-to-back aces while Kanitz, Jenna Finney and Lindsay Kostrzewa also had big swings.
TC Christian went on to enjoy leads of 20-3 and 21-7 before closing out the regional championship with four straight points, beginning with another O'Brien kill.
"In the third game everything came together," Hansen said. "I've always wanted to coach a game where everything came together and we did that in the third game. We had all the bounces and everything went our way."
"Every single person on the team played to the best of their abilities," said Kanitz, who finished with nine kills. "We played the game of the season."
TC Christian, which opened the regional with a Finney ace, led 4-1 and 12-9 in the early going of game one. Northern Christian battled all the way back to knot the game at 20, but the Sabres closed it out from there, highlighted by kills from Lindsay Kostrzewa and Yahr.
The Sabres started strong in game two as well, capping a run of four straight points with a Callie Kostrzewa to lead 12-8. Northern Christian cut the gap to 17-15 before TC Christian scored five straight -- capped by a Yahr kill and consecutive Finney aces -- to take control.
TC Christian missed one serve all match and got perfect performances from Yahr (18 for 18), Finney (12-12, three aces), Romstadt (12-12), Callie Kostrzewa (10-10, three aces) and Meghan Terpstra (9-9).
Lindsay Kostrzewa finished with 14 kills and four digs while Yahr added seven kills and six digs. Finney added three kills and 13 digs, Romstadt 30 assists and Terpstra five digs.
Kendra Brinks led McBain Northern Christian with nine kills, seven digs and one block while Abby Ebels recorded eight kills and two blocks. Courtney Rozeveld had six kills, eight digs and was 10 for 10 serving while Kelsey Dracht was 8 for 8 at the stripe.
Northern Christian, coming off its run to the semifinals last season, finished the 2008 campaign with a 19-30-7 record.
"Hopefully it's not just a two-year run," Simon said. "I feel like I've got a fairly consistent coaching staff and we're building something again at NMC. Diane Eisenga built a great program here and I hope we can be playing for regional titles every year."
"We're hoping to follow their path," Hansen said. "We'll follow their lead."
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