Titan volleyball team splits last two matches to Ortonville and Hancock
by coach Judy Gillespie

The Titans posted a conference win against Ortonville, 3-0.  Scores of the games were 25-18, 25-20, and 26-24.  The girls played good, solid volleyball the first 2 games.  They picked up a lot of digs on defense and our hitting was hard and consistent.  Game 3 saw us get a little too relaxed and Ortonville took advantage of that.  The Titans found themselves down 14-22 in game 3.  The girls were determined and very composed on the floor when J. Lehman stepped to the service line and got us to 19-23.  Because of our defense, we were back in the game.  A side out got us the serve back and M. Kontz served to give us the lead 24-23.  From that point it was back and forth exciting volleyball until we finally won game 3, 26-24.
    We really had a balanced attack game with several girls posting kills.
Johnson led with 9, Draper had 7, Haney 6, Dierks 5, Engquist and Strobel each had 4.  Kontz had 13 set assists and Johnson had 9.
    Engquist was 10/11 in serving, Johnson 9/10, Lehman 14/15, 2 aces, Dierks 15/17, 2 aces, Kontz 14/16, 2 aces, and Howe 7/9.
    Dierks had 4 aces blocks, Strobel had 2 and Draper contributed 1.

CAHN 1 Hancock 3
    The Titans traveled to Hancock for another conference match and to avenge a loss to them earlier in the season, but it wasn't meant to be and Hancock prevailed, 1-3.  Scores were 25-16, 21-25, 20-25 and 17-25.

    The Titans came out ready to play in game one.  They made very few errors and cruised to a win in game 1.  Games 2-4 were a different story as the girls couldn't keep the dertermination and momentum in their favor.
Hancock turned things around and the Titans became less aggressive on defense.  We didn't get the hitting or the blocks that we had in game 1 and Hancock capitalized on our mistakes.

Leading in the offense was Dierks with 12 kills, followed by Draper with 7, Johnson 6, Haney 5, Engquist and Strobel 4 each and Kontz had 1.  Kontz also had 17 set assists and Johnson had 15.

We had several girls who were perfect at the service line.  Engquist was 19/19, Johnson 14/14, 1 ace, Kontz 12/12, Lehman 11/11, Howe 11/13 and Dierks 12/15, 2 aces.

Engquist and Howe each had 28 digs on defense and Lehman had 19.  Dierks had 2 ace blocks and Engquist, Draper, Strobel and Johnson each had 1.

Our overall record now stands at 12-8-7, with a conference record at 4-4.  We have one regular season match left on Tuesday, October 24 in Herman against CTF.  We then start post-season play on October 26.

Herman-Norcross Homecoming sweet
with Spartan victory over Eagle Valley Rebels, 30-16
by coach Dave Hofland

The Eagle Valley Rebels came to Herman last Friday and left town with a 30-16 loss to the CAHN Spartans in a game played in very windy conditions.

The Spartans started the scoring in the first quarter after an exchange of punts.  The drive started on their own 27 yard line and ended 73 yards and seven plays later when Josh Werk went 43 yards on a beautiful option play with Mitch Daly throwing three knockdown blocks to lead the way.  Daly went over left tackle to score the two point conversion to make the score 8-0 at the end of one quarter.

After another defensive three-and-out, the Spartan offense took over at midfield and went on a 50 yard, seven play drive that had Brett Lennox scampering for 23 yards for the TD. Lennox had a 12 yard run on the drive to keep it going.  The conversion attempt was no good and the Spartans had a 14-0 halftime lead.

After forcing a Rebel punt to start the second half, CAHN hit paydirt again when Luke Schmiesing scrambled from 23 yards out for a score. This drive covered 44 yards in 10 plays.  Schmiesing passed to Daly for the two point conversion to give the Spartans a 22-0 lead.  On the next Rebel possession, Schmiesing stepped in front of a Eagle Valley pass for an interception at the CAHN 24 yard line.  The Spartans took only five plays to go 76 yards with Lennox taking a handoff around left end, cut back right and went 60 yards for the TD.  Werk dove over for the two point conversion.

The Rebels were able to tally two scores of their own in the fourth quarter to make the final score 30-16.  The Spartan offense was led by Lennox with 168 yards on 18 carries, followed by Daly with 82 yards on 22 carries, Luke Claassen with 21 yards on  carries, Josh Werk with 51 yards on carries and Luke Schmiesing with 27 yards on 3 carries.  The offensive line of Reed Kampmeier, Sam Knudson, Cody Krosch, Craig Stenger, and Daniel Schmidt blocked very well all afternoon.  Luke Schmiesing completed one pass to Daly for three yards.

The defense was led by Claassen with eight solo tackles and four assists, followed by Daly with six solos and seven assists, Lennox with three solos and eleven assists and Josh Werk with four solos and four assists.

The Spartans final regular season game will be played in Verndale on Wednesday, Oct 18, at 3:30 pm.  Section play will begin on Tuesday versus an opponent yet to be determined.