Volleyball
BATTLE CREEK – Once Rockford forced a fourth set, the Rams had new life.
And once the fourth set got going, the Rams got on a tidal wave roll — that included an 11-0 run — which Temperance Bedford couldn’t rise above.
No. 5-ranked Rockford eventually out-dueled Temperance Bedford — 23-25, 24-26, 25-19, 25-12, 15-11 — to secure a major come-from-behind win in the Class A semifinal late Friday night and advance to face No. 1-ranked and defending champ Novi at 2 p.m. today.
“The girls came out a little bit tight in that first set, then I thought we started to settle down late in the second set, and had a good run against them, but a couple of bad serves at the end that kind of cost us,” said Rockford coach Kelly Delacher.
“We’ve been in two tough five-setters in the last two rounds; I think that really kept us kind of stable and really felt like we could get back into if we kept on working hard.”
After winning the third set, Rockford’s 11-0 run was fueled by solid serves from Makayla Seelye that turned a 5-5 tie into a 16-5 Ram advantage. Rockford also became more aggressive offensively. The Rams had 12 kills to Bedford’s 16 in the first set, but doubled the number of kills that Bedford had in the third and fourth sets.
“Offensively we definitely turned it up. Our middle (hitters) are unbelievable,” Delacher said. “Bedford had a tough time keeping up with the speed of our offense at that point, and we started passing a little bit better. Bedford played really good defense against us early on. I thought we made some good adjustments defensively in that second game and definitely the third and fourth sets.”
Rockford (48-8-1) had four players in double-figure kills — Olivia Rademacher with 18, Sara Majerle (15), Cassandra Smigiel (13) and Kendra DeJonge (10). Erika Wilt had 16 kills for Bedford (56-14-3) and Heidi Fausze added 12.
“I think we were kind of shaken when we first came out, we expected to come out stronger,” Rademacher said. “But we were hopefully because we’ve been down before and have come back up. I think we just looked to each other and knew we had to play as a team.”
Bedford never backed down as Rockford rolled into the final set with a head of steam to take a 7-2 lead. But the Kicking Mules fought back to tie at 11, before the Rams scored the final four consecutive points, the last two on kills by DeJonge and Zoe Anderson.
About Novi, Delacher said: “They’re a very good team. They’ve got some big weapons out there. I think we play pretty good defense and we’re hoping to give them a run.”