North Branch celebrates after beating St. Clair Shores South Lake in the Class B quarterfinal Tuesday in Clawson.
The Class B quarterfinal volleyball matchup at Clawson Tuesday was the fairytale equivalent of Cinderella versus Superman.
St. Clair Shores South Lake, which finished last in the Macomb Area Conference Silver Division at 1-9, took on No. 3-ranked powerhouse North Branch. It was over quickly.
North Branch, the state runner-up last year and state champ in 2014, dominated early to advance once again to the semifinals in Battle Creek in straight sets, 25-4, 25-11 and 25-10. It’s the eighth time in the last 10 years the Broncos have won their quarterfinal.
South Lake was on a wild run through the playoffs, playing much deeper into the tournament than anyone expected.
“I told the girls coming in that we’re now in the big dogs’ group,” South Lake coach Chris Blair said after the match. “We started with 128 teams two weeks ago, and, however you slice it, we made the final eight. So they are not to hang their heads no matter what happened. You’re playing a formidable team but we’re not going to hand it to them. We’ll try to play our style. Unfortunately with their hitting style we didn’t get that many opportunities to pass the ball and set up our tempo.
“They have a stealer program at North Branch and we were just out-played. Their athleticism was superior to ours today … and we lost to a better team. We’re not hanging our heads.”
South Lake won the first point of the match, but a sign of things to come reared up as North Branch (56-9) rattled off 23 consecutive points on 17 serves by senior Madee Miner and then six by substitute Autumn Deshetsky.
“When it got to 23-1, I thought it was a testament that our kids stayed focused – and sometimes you’re not – and since we played all three games that way I was very happy tonight,” said North Branch coach James Fish. “I thought the starters did a good job of staying focused, just looking at what we needed to do on our side of the court. I thought we were fast and it’s nice to be moving on to the state semifinals.
“We got a lot of kids some good playing time tonight, and we had several kids that were really nervous, so that will pay us dividends down the road because it’s not often you get the chance to play everyone in a quarterfinal, especially extended time. So that was all good.”
Fish added that reaching Battle Creek again to try advancing one more spot above state runner-up has been the only goal since starting practice at midnight of opening day.
“We’ve been very focused all season with everyone staying on the goals,” Miner said.
