By YVETTE LANIER
News Sports Writer
ROGERS CITY - It was beautifully scripted.
One Rogers City player sets the ball and six volleyball players leap into the air, rhythmically swinging at invisible balls.
The trick? Amanda Smolinski was the only one that connected with the real ball.
The Hurons had the Oscoda Owls fooled, as the Owls tried to figure out which girl in the black and orange jersey was hitting the real ball over the net.
Call it an Oscar-worthy performance as the actresses pulled the stint off successfully twice against the Owls on Monday night as they rolled to a 3-0 win and advanced to a the second round of district play.
"I love that play," said Hurons coach Kristy Smolinski. "That is my sweet play. We've been working on that for a while. I really push them to run fakes. The more you can run fakes and have your strong hitters running plays, the blockers on the other side don't know which way to go."
Outside hitter Shelby Schleben led the Hurons' offense with 10 aces, while Amanda Smolinski had 10 kills for the night.
Five of Schleben's aces came in the first set when she served five straight points to give the Hurons a double-digit 25-10 win. Momentum carried over into the second game as Rebecca Peacook opened with back-to-back kills. The Hurons got a little bit too comfortable, playing sloppy at times resulting in hitting errors. The Owls happily collected the free points and soon found themselves back in the game and leading 20-18. It was a lead the Owls couldn't maintain against the Hurons' strong hitters. A kill by Peacook and two errors later Rogers City won 26-24. In the third, Rogers City pulled off the trick again and Smolinski earned the kill to bring the score to 19-11. A spike by Smolinski sealed the 25-16 win.
The Hurons' Schleben said after grabbing the first game, they let up and didn't take the Owls too seriously in the next game, but they were in for a wake-up call.
"The first game we came out really good," she said. "The second, we kind of over thought it and thought it would be an easy one. We really needed to pull together and play as we normally do. We can't play down to the opponents we play, we have to play up to our level.
"The third game we definitely came back and got them."
Rogers City will face Alcona on Wednesday at home. Coach Smolinski said they Hurons' hitting has improved since the beginning of the season and when they're playing at the top of their game, they're a dangerous squad.
"We feel pretty confident about the rest of the week," Smolinski said. "We really learned to work together as a team instead of fighting on the court. We really worked on setting up a lot of plays, really keeping the other teams guessing.
"Our hitters have really come around. Amanda's really come around as a strong hitter, Rebecca and Logan (Schuiteman). When they're all on there's no stopping us."
Other top contributors for the Hurons were Schuiteman with 5 kills, Rebecca Talaske tallied 10 kills, and Leann Knopf recorded four assists. Smolinski recorded 34 digs, while Emily Marx added 20 digs.