MONTAGUE — Montague "left it all on the floor," said coach Gretchen Schneider, to push top seed Fruitport to a fourth game Wednesday in the district semifinals, and didn't have the juice to get to a fifth, falling 25-16, 25-16, 23-25, 25-13. It's the second year in a row Fruitport has knocked Montague out of the playoffs.
The Wildcats' brightest spot was clearly game three, in which Montague rallied from a 23-21 deficit to score four straight points and get a big crowd of blue-clad supporters on their feet. The 'Cats scored kills on three straight points before a Fruitport attack error gave them the game three win.
Schneider called timeout when Fruitport was up 23-21 and urged her team to play with nothing to lose - because, as she said, at that point they didn't.
"They were playing apprehensively," Schneider said. "They weren't playing volleyball. They were going through the motions, and that's not how we prepared. We prepared to play volleyball and to loosen up. We took a couple deep breaths in the timeout and reset and refocused...They went out and just let it rip."
It was a mindset that perhaps wasn't quite all the way there in the first two games, each of which Fruitport seized control of early. The Trojans took a 15-8 lead in game one and a 15-4 edge in game two and never looked back either time.
"I thought we were going to start a lot stronger," Schneider said. "We just came out of the gates so incredibly slow. I think if we would have taken game one or two, things would've swung differently."
Montague's Emalee McGee leaps to make an attack during Wednesday's district semifinal match against Fruitport. The Wildcats lost, 3-1.
Montague did hang with Fruitport early in game four, but after a 6-6 tie, the Trojans again seized control as they had in the first two games, and Montague couldn't answer.
There is of course no shame in bowing out to Fruitport, a tradition-rich program with ample recent success under veteran coach Nicole Bayle, including a regional title a year ago.
"Fruitport is amazing," Schneider said. "They have such a strong program under Nicole. We beat ourselves tonight in a lot of aspects, but you can't take anything away from them. They're a good team. They do very well."
Montague, meanwhile, bid farewell to six seniors, each of whom played big roles on the team and each of whom was lauded by Schneider for their efforts this season. Setter Emalee McGee led the team Wednesday with eight kills in addition to her 13 assists, and her timely attacks at the net often caught Fruitport off guard and helped the 'Cats extend the match. Reagan Cederquist posted a team-best 21 digs, with Gentry Knop close behind with 19. Jenna Woller, Abriana Ramthun and Abbi Tallquist each contributed in various ways when needed, including a stint at setter for Woller earlier this season due to injury.
The future, too, looks bright for Montague with a "loaded" JV team, Schneider said, ready to contribute next fall. The Wildcats got a sprinkling of that Wednesday with Bailey Darke, one call-up, contributing a pair of aces at the service line.
"That JV team, they had a lot of arsenal on there that they're going to be setting up," Schneider said. "It's getting pretty exciting."
