Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By JASON JUNO
HOUGHTON — Ewen-Trout Creek couldn’t pull off two upsets in a row as the No. 2-ranked team in the Upper Peninsula, Hancock, ended their historic season with a 3-0 sweep of the Panthers in Tuesday night’s MHSAA Division 4 regional semifinal.
The Bulldogs made the short drive over the Portage Lake Lift Bridge to Houghton High School and jumped on the Panthers for a 25-8, 25-10, 25-20 victory.
Hancock’s schedule is as tough as anyone’s in the U.P. They are one of only two U.P. teams to take a set from big school No. 1 Calumet this year and the only from Division 4. They beat Manistique, which won its D-3 regional. The Bulldogs also have eight seniors while E-TC has none.
“They’ve got some strong hitters,” E-TC coach Kaitlin Ruotsala said. “Tonight we weren’t able to make the adjustments that we needed to quick enough. They’ve got a deep bench, too, that’s helpful.”
Hancock jumped the Panthers early in both of the first two sets and breezed to easy wins.
“We were really effective with our serve and I think that took them out of their offense,” Hancock coach Brian Lamppa said. “And then we did a really good job eliminating a lot of errors and just keeping the ball in play. And that’s been what we’ve done all year long, but I think it really helped us tonight.”
E-TC battled in the third set where it fell by only five points, 25-20.
Ruotsala said they finally made the adjustments they needed to and were motivated to come back.
“They settled down. They’re a very good defensive team. They can do some things that make you struggle a little bit,” Lamppa said.
He watched the Panthers’ district final win over Wakefield-Marenisco and saw reason to worry coming into the regional semifinal.
“They wore Wakefield down and they really frustrated them and Wakefield started making a lot of errors,” Lamppa said. “That was worrisome for me coming in because that’s something that we were doing against Lake Linden (a come-from-behind five-set district final win) and they do a similar type thing.
“I’m really proud of our girls, they really just kept their composure and just kept working on making sure we’re serving the ball in and pass, set, hit the ball over.”
E-TC finished at 19-9 after winning a district for the first time since the MHSAA went to this format in 2000.
Hancock (23-6-2) plays Crystal Falls Forest Park (34-4-1), ranked No. 1 in Division 4 all year after a run to the state semifinal last year, Thursday night at Baraga in the regional final.
“Forest Park’s really good,” Lamppa said. “They have a good program, they’ve got the tradition, they’re well coached. We’re going to have to play very steady. It’s going to be the same type of thing. We’re going to have to serve very aggressive, we’re going to have to serve in, we’re going to have to win the serve receive battle and we’re going to have to limit our errors to give us a chance.
“Most of our season we’ve played Division 2 or Division 3 schools. Hopefully that’s really prepared us for a quality opponent like Crystal Falls.”
St. Ignace (24-4-6) beat Rudyard in five sets and will play Atlanta (35-4-1) Thursday in the other regional final.