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Flivvs outlast Gladstone for Great Northern title

Kingsford’s volleyball team celebrates with the GNC championship trophy after beating Gladstone in the finals 2-1 Saturday in Escanaba. Mark Johnson | Daily Press Photo

ESCANABA — In a championship match that went into overtime, Kingsford edged Gladstone for the 2018 Great Northern Conference title with a 26-28, 25-13, 16-14 victory.

The come-from behind win was the theme of the tournament for the Flivvers in the meet Saturday at Escanaba High School.

Kingsford was fourth in pool play and had to face top-seed Marquette in the semifinals.

Coach Jaclynn Kreider’s team beat Marquette 25-22, 25-18 to reach the title round.

“The morning didn’t start out too good for us,” said Kreider.

“We had to come back and beat Menominee (in pool play) and we have done this all season long winning many matches in five sets after trailing. We came back today and played well in bracket play.”

Delta County rivals Gladstone and Escanaba played in the semifinals with the Braves beating Esky 25-23, 25-11.

The Eskymos were without their top player, Lexi Chaillier, who was out with an ankle injury suffered last week in the Elks Invitational tournament.

“Beating Escanaba was nice to beat our rival and we knew Kingsford was playing well as they beat us in their house Thursday,” said Gladstone coach Bill Lawrence.

The championship match first set went into extra scoring with the Braves winning 28-26.

Serving runs by Gladstone’s Taleise Lawrence and Annabelle Christie and three kills each by Lawrence and Megan Crow led the Braves in set one.

The Flivver comeback in the final was led by a dominating 25-13 win in set two.

Kingsford’s Aby Pickett had four kills and a service ace and Maggie Strehlow closed out the set with two aces and a seven-point serving run.

The final set had two comebacks, one by each team.

Gladstone jumped out to an 11-7 lead in the final game scoring set to 15 points.

Kingsford battled back with seven straight points to go up 14-11 on three aces by Katherine Erickson and two kills by Strehlow.

Gladstone fought off three championship points to tie the match at 14-14 on the serving run of Kaleia Lawrence.

The Flivvers scored the final two points of the match to win their GNC championship, one year after not advancing out of pool play in the tournament.

“I am proud of our team, we’ve had a long week of playing Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and now today (Saturday),” said Kreider.

“These girls are good students and work really hard at this and deserve this. I am really excited for them. This was a big win.”

Gladstone came one step short of reaching its goals to win the GNC title and Braves coach Lawrence said his team and Kingsford both played high-level volleyball in the tournament final. “Both teams were playing well and Kingsford taking out Marquette was impressive,” said Lawrence.

“When it is 14-all in the last set, it’s anybody’s game. Our girls gave it everything they had and I am very proud of them. I feel really good about our team.”

(Mark Johnson is with The Daily Press of Escanaba)

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