Panthers drop Speedgirls

BESSEMER - Ewen-Trout Creek picked up a road Porcupine Mountain Conference victory over a young Bessemer team Thursday, 3-1.

The Panthers won 25-15, 25-22, 19-25, 25-21.

"It was a lot of passion by the girls," new E-TC coach Brandon Ward said. "The girls have been working so hard, so well deserving of this. They played two close games before this; I'm just happy to see the ball went our way tonight. The team we played tonight was awesome."

The Speedgirls fought back after dropping the first two games. E-TC led much of the final game before Bessemer pulled within 22-21. What happened next was indicative of Bessemer's day: Jazzmyn McGeshick dropped an ace in to pull Bessemer within 23-21. Her next serve hit the net, though and E-TC went on to close it out.

Bessemer tallied a lot of aces: Nicki Lekies led the Speedgirls with nine. Madeline Gabka had seven, McGeshick six, Allyson Metas four and Valerie Rowe one.

Most of the other serves ended up going too far.

"Our serving was an ace or a miss," Bessemer coach Shelly Mettler said.

McGeshick and Rachel Emery both had two kills for Bessemer.

The Speedgirls lost seven players to graduation, including two who are playing volleyball at Gogebic Community College. Mettler expects some growing pains this year.

"We'll just keep working and get better," Mettler said. "I think nerves was 75 percent of our problem tonight. We made a lot of errors tonight, a lot of dropped balls. In practice, they hardly do that. I think it was just nerves."

It was only the first match for Bessemer.

"Our inexperience really came through tonight," Mettler said. "It was our first game and they never settled down. I thought we were going to struggle more with our passing, but we actually struggled more with our position playing. I think we'll simplify things. I think they thought too much on the floor. A hitter thought she was just a hitter, a setter thought they were just a setter and not keep the ball alive."

E-TC did not keep stats.

"Molly (Niemi), our captain, played great out there, great leadership," Ward said. "Sara (Pantti) went on a really nice run for us a couple times. But overall the girls played great. They really came together as a team, especially with Mercedes (Alinen) having a little bit of a knee injury."

Bessemer hosts Wakefield-Marenisco for a PMC match Monday. It is not an Indianhead Conference meeting.