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Brown City and Memphis both put up fights but Marlette, in the end, walked away with its 6th straight Class C District championship. The Lady Raiders, 42-10-5, will continue on to the Regionals at Saginaw Carrollton this Friday, meeting Saginaw Valley Lutheran in a 6:30 p.m. semifinal. Ubly, GTC East co-champs with Marlette, plays in the 5 p.m. semifinal against Byron.

Coach Fred McDowell has been at the helm in Marlette's stretch of District tradition.

"This is a good bunch of kids to help continue that," said McDowell. "They played well. I don't think they're at the top of their game yet, but hopefully, we can orchestrate that this Friday."

In Saturday's semifinal at Brown City High School, the Lady Raiders needed four games to dispose of the pesky Lady Green Devils. BC won game one, 25-21, before Marlette took the next three, 25-14, 25-21, 25-20.

The Lady Devils trailed, 17-15, in the opening game when they found a groove and pulled away to the win. Junior Kayla Parr and senior Kayla Cain delivered key kills in the final stretch.

Marlette came back to dominate game two. In game three, senior setter Josie Volz was a factor at the net with two late kills to help Marlette expand a narrow two-point lead to six, 24-18.

Then in the fourth game, a key stretch came for the Lady Raiders after they trailed, 11-9. Junior Amara Wilson served a pair of aces, Amber Wood added a kill and Volz had a block to regain the lead, 13-11. Brown City fought back to go on top, 17-15. But then it was Jenna Lange's time to take over. The 6'1" senior middle hitter scored six of the last eight Marlette points on kills. Wood's tip on a set by Volz ended the match.

McDowell had praise for Brown City, a team that has played his girls tough, but went 0-4 against them this year.

"Dennis (Sidebottom, BC coach), and I've been saying this all along, has a great program. His kids play great defense and they were on the attack all day," said McDowell, who added his team could never relax in the semifinal

Coach Dennis Sidebottom of Brown City, which finished the season with a 25-14-4 record,knows his team played well.

"It's a little discouraging because we did play so well. But, Marlette is an awful good team."

He added that his team's defense did its job, but he also liked the offensive end. "I was fairly happy with the offense. When you play Marlette, scoring points is not easy. I think Kayla Parr did a really nice job and Sandi Oligney, of course, is all over the place."

Memphis, the undefeated champion of the NCTL South this fall, never backed off the Lady Raiders, either, in the championship match. Marlette did win in three games, though, 25-20, 25-23, 25-21.

Marlette jumped out to a 16-7 lead in the opening game and strolled from there. The next game saw them lead by four to six points. Memphis came back within one, 24-23, before Marlette closed it out.

The final game went back and forth. Rachel Stancliff tied it at 21-21 with a kill for Marlette. The Lady Raiders closed it on an ace from Wood and two kills from Lange.

Lange, who has verbally committed to Oakland University next fall, finished with 45 kills and nine blocks on the day. Wood, a junior added 21 kills and six blocks. Another junior, Averi McEwen, added eight kills, including several in key spots.

"Averi had a lot of good, hard hits for us," said McDowell, who also praised his team's all-around attack effort. "It was mixed around a little better than it has been in the past."

Volz finished with 62 assists and also led the serving, going 29 of 30. Junior Jenna Thompson led the defense.

"Jenna had a great day passing Ð she had 62 of 65 digs, which is excellent. She probably passed the best, at least, the most consistently."

For Brown City in the match with the Lady Raiders, Parr finnished with 17 kills and two blocks, Kayla Cain had 16 digs, 10 service points and three aces, Kayla Muxlow added 16 digs and seven kills, and Oligney had 13 digs and 28 assists.

In first-round play last Thursday, Marlette swept three games from Sandusky and Memphis eased by New Haven.

Class C Regionals

The Lady Raiders face a bit of an unknown quantity in Valley Lutheran in the Regional semifinals on Friday night. Valley Lutheran won its first District title in 11 years by stunning favored Saginaw Nouvel Catholic in the championship match.

"I think they surprised a lot o people by beating Nouvel, and probably surprised Nouvel," said McDowell. "I know Valley Lutheran was ranked in the middle (of the Class C top 10) earlier this year, but, for some reason, they fell out."

If his team can get by Valley Lutheran, McDowell knows a third match this season with Ubly is likely. The two split their matches in the GTC East to share the title.

"Byron is a scrappy team. They'll be pretty good, but I don't know if they can go more than three games with Ubly," mentioned McDowell.

On the Bearcats, McDowell said, "Andy (Gusa, Ubly coach) graduated, except Shannon Weber, most of his (players) from last year and look what he's done with what he's got."

McDowell calls Gusa's offensive strategy "unorthodox". He explained that it is a slower pace of play. "They pass the ball 30-feet in the air to their setter, who throws the ball way high for the hitters. Then, their defense is better than a Hoover vacuum cleaner at keeping things off the floor."

Most of Marlette's losses this season have been against Class A and B teams in the several tournaments the team has been in. It's the type of competition McDowell wanted to get his team ready for the post-season.

"We've played a lot of A and B teams this year. It just makes us better."

The Lady Raiders could begin to find out just how much better from here on out.