E-TC upsets W-M for 1st district title

By JASON JUNO

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Ewen — The Ewen-Trout Creek girls keep adding hardware to the trophy case.

And it’s not even basketball season yet.

After winning their first U.P. cross country title last month, the Panthers won the MHSAA Division 4 District 97 volleyball title with a four-set win over Wakefield-Marenisco Thursday night.

It was E-TC’s first district volleyball title since the MHSAA combined the U.P. and L.P. tournaments into one state tournament in 2000.

While the Panthers were favored going into the U.P. cross country finals, they were the underdogs against the tournament-favorite Cardinals.

“It was a little unexpected this time, but it was really great,” E-TC’s Bree Besonen said. She came up big with 13 kills Thursday night and was the Panthers’ top cross country runner. “They’re a really good team and we lost to them both times this year — it was unexpected and it was really awesome.”

The Panthers are two-time defending district champions in basketball, and now they’ve made their mark in volleyball. They have an eighth grader on the team but no seniors.

“I’m so excited,” said E-TC’s Irelynd McGeshick, who led the Panthers with 17 kills. “This is three districts for basketball and volleyball in the past three years, which is very exciting to me.”

It didn’t initially look like it would go that way. The Cardinals dominated the first set for a 25-12 win, but E-TC rattled off three wins in a row — 26-24, 25-19, 25-16.

“I think they just cleaned up their errors really,” E-TC coach Kaitlin Ruotsala said of her team. “I think their errors reduced and they were able to get those big swings in.”

W-M coach Kim Belmas couldn’t put her finger on what changed after a big win in the first set.

“I don’t think E-TC did anything greatly different in the following sets than the first,” she said. “For whatever reason we lost momentum and we did not play to our ability.”

E-TC’s offense certainly started slow — they recorded just three kills and 12 points as a team in the first set. The Panthers then won the tightest set of them all, 26-24 in the second, and were led by seven kills from McGehick, an All-U.P. selection last year.

The Panthers built a 17-9 advantage in the third. W-M made it tight with their All-U.P. hitter Noelle Grace on the front row. She accounted for seven kills in a run that helped the Cardinals close the gap to 19-17.

McGeshick made it 22-19 with a kill of her own. Bree Besonen made it 24-19 and the Panthers closed it out for the 25-19 win.

It was pretty much all E-TC in the fourth and final set as Besonen tallied seven of her kills and E-TC advanced to the regional semifinal.

Besonen came up huge on the outside to help the Panthers advance.

“Bree really had a strong night tonight and she got those hits over,” Ruotsala said. “She knew when not to hit and when to be able to place it with a push over.”

Besonen also finished with a team-best 17 digs.

“She again led defensively in this district game, just as she has all season,” Ruotsala said.

Leona Schutz and McGeshick both had 15 digs for the Panthers. Emma Besonen finished with 30 assists.

The Panthers were able to withstand a typical big night from Grace, who finished with 17 kills and four aces. “She played awesome as usual,” Belmas said.

E-TC worked to make its lead as big as possible when she was off the front row, allowing them to withstand big runs led by Grace.

“Then we had some padding to work with,” Ruotsala said. “She is their strong hitter and it’s tough to get her passes up, so we had to work around that.”

They did and advanced to their first regional.