FREMONT — Montague entered Wednesday's district semifinal matchup with Oakridge looking for a decisive result after the teams split four regular-season meetings. The Wildcats delivered, playing strong, cohesive volleyball much of the night and securing the win, 25-17, 20-25, 25-17, 25-17.
With the win, the Wildcats earned a shot at top seed Fremont in the finals Thursday night. The match was played after the Mirror went to press.
Montague had a bit of a lull in game two, struggling with a slew of errors down the stretch after pulling away late to win the opening game. Oakridge stormed back from a 17-12 deficit to go on a 11-1 scoring run, many of the points coming on Montague errors of some form or another, and stole the win. Coach Gretchen Schneider conceded that the team was too comfortable after the game one win and it affected its play in the second game.
"It is nice to get the first set under your belt, and you can breathe easier, but you can't take your foot off the accelerator, and we certainly did," Schneider said. "That's when you saw the errors starting to pile up on us."
Another factor, she said, was that the pace of the first two games did not favor the Wildcats, who prefer a more fast-paced match. So Montague pushed the pace more after dropping game two, partially at the urging of senior Ella Evans, whom Schneider credited with great leadership in the huddle.
"She just said, 'Hey, we've got to go back to the basics. We've got to do what we were doing during our practice,'" Schneider said of Evans' pep talk. "We do a warm-up called Chaos, where it is just ball after ball after ball after ball. It doesn't stop. It's 3-on-3, and the girls have to cover the entire court. There's a lot of communication and a lot of strange things like Layla (Denhof) going behind the official's stand over there and getting to that ball. That's what happens during Chaos.
"I've got a lot of fast girls that can get to those shanked balls, so I just figured that we need to start doing a drill every single day that would help our chances to bring that ball back into the center of the court and at least putting something down on the other side."
Montague had already gotten a peek of Chaos during game two on the clutch play by Denhof that Schneider referenced, managing to chase down a ball that nearly reached the stands and putting it back by the net, allowing Ellie Hedges to score a kill. That play didn't result in the win in game two, but it gave the 'Cats a reminder of where they're at their best, and they recaptured that form in games three and four.
Oakridge did take an early lead in game three, but Montague won a long point on a tip kill by Hallie VanTuyl, sparking a rally. Kaitlyn Leatherman then went on a serving run, highlighted by an ace that was the Wildcats' sixth straight point and gave them a 14-13 lead. Montague never trailed again.
Montague played even more aggressively in game four, unleashing Annelyse Schneider for some ferocious kills. Schneider had 11 kills on the night, second to Ellee Smith's 15 on the team.
Also for Montague, Schneider had five blocks. Ava Dean had a huge day at the service line, totaling seven aces and 27 service points in all. Denhof racked up 39 assists.
The Wildcats entered Thursday's final with reason to believe they can topple Fremont; no one in WMC Lakes regular-season play came closer than they did, having extended the Packers to a decisive fifth game before falling short.
"It was a great, great game, and then we saw them at our conference tournament, but we were not at our best (that day)," Schneider said. "We've been preparing for them. We knew that Oakridge came first, but everything that we've been working on goes double for Fremont."
