MUSKEGON — Throughout the season, Montague coach Gretchen Schneider has put her team into scrimmage situations where one side of the team has to rally from a deficit against the other. The losers have to, as she put it, "do some running." The idea is to eliminate the fear of playing from behind.
It's safe to say that paid off Thursday night in the district semifinals, as the Wildcats rallied from what looked like a doomsday situation to defeat Spring Lake 20-25, 26-24, 25-20, 25-18. With the win, Montague advanced to face top seed Fruitport in the finals Saturday.
The 'Cats (28-13-4), having already dropped the first game, trailed 20-10 in game two and appeared on the verge of a somewhat stunning upset loss. However, Montague got a huge boost from Ava Pumford at a somewhat unlikely spot - the service line.
"I'm not sure how many she scored," Schneider said. "It was five, six, or seven in a row. I think that was the turning point for us, because it showed resolve. She's not one of our strongest servers. You always cross your fingers when your middle goes to the back (row)."
Pumford's serving got Montague back in the game, but it still trailed 23-19 when Gentry Knop stepped to the line and delivered an ace. Spring Lake responded with a point, but the Wildcats roared back with a flurry of kills, including a terrific tandem block by Reagan Cederquist and Jaelyn Sundberg to tie it at 24. After an attack error by Spring Lake, Maizie Collins then finished the game off with a kill.
From then on, it was Montague's night. Outside of a brief deficit early in game four, the Wildcats never trailed again. Seniors Collins, Pumford and Sundberg led the way, along with the junior Cederquist.
"We went in our huddle and we just came out realizing that for all of us seniors, this (could be) our last game, so we really wanted it more than them," Pumford said.
Pumford, Collins, Jordan Netcott and Knop each tied for the team lead with 14 service points each. Collins was the ringleader of the offense, racking up 16 kills. Schneider credited her as the emotional driving force of the team.
"I think everybody in the gymnasium saw when Maizie Collins turned on the fire, so that was just exciting to watch her," Schneider said. "She lights it up and the team follows right behind her. She turned the momentum for us."
Montague seized control of both games three and four around the midway point and never looked back, enthusiastically celebrating each point. The 'Cats are not usually a raucous team on the sidelines, but Schneider said her players knew from their experience playing with and against several of the Lakers in club volleyball that getting loud would benefit them in the game.
"There was a lot of purposeful cheering," Schneider said. "They wanted to cheer and almost grind it in a little bit. They wanted to have a little bit more celebration so that they drove home their point."
The coach added that her players did a good job carrying out the moves and countermoves that were part of a chess match between her and Spring Lake coach Ed Bailey, a legendary coaching figure in the area.
"We adjusted according to what we were seeing them do, and pretty soon you'd see Spring Lake adjust and we would adjust to that," Schneider said. "It was an entire game of adjustments, and we just outlasted them. We had a couple more tricks up our sleeve than they did at the end."
