Prep roundup: Gaylord volleyball defeats Alpena, St. Mary beats Onaway

GAYLORD ― It was a busy week for the area sports programs.

All three high schools football teams played at home on Friday night, while volleyball, soccer and cross country teams from all three schools were also in action throughout the week.

Check-in on how local teams fared:

Gaylord Volleyball

The Blue Devils' volleyball team is starting to find its stride.

After dropping a four-set match to Cadillac on Tuesday (22-25, 13-25, 25-19, 15-25), Gaylord hosted another Big North opponent in Alpena on Thursday night.

After some matches of good volleyball came with some disappointing results the past two weeks, the Blue Devils put it all together in a four-set win over the visiting Wildcats (25-19, 25-12, 19-25, 25-19).

It was another dominant performance for their senior leaders, Abby Radulski and Alexis Kozlowski. Radulski had a team-high 23 kills along with 14 digs, while Kozlowski added 13 kills and a team-high 25 digs along with three aces.

The performance put Radulski in the 200-kill club this season, wrapping the match with exactly 200 kills on the year.

Senior Maddi Dipzinski had a great showing as well, adding 24 assists, 10 digs, three kills and a block in a dominant victory.

"Our defense and senior leadership was absolutely outstanding," head coach Brittany Cornish said. "I feel like we are coming together at the right time."

Gaylord improves to 5-4 overall and 1-4 in Big North play. They play host to Traverse City West on Wednesday, September 28.

Gaylord soccer

The Blue Devils soccer team dropped two Big North matchups last week, losing to TC West on Tuesday before another loss on Thursday to Petoskey.

Max Muzio scored the lone Gaylord goal on Thursday, beating the Petoskey defense for a late goal to break a scoreless streak.

Petoskey goals came from Ben Shuman (two goals), Kurtis Mainland, Aidan Norton, Charlie Smith and Noah Bodurka.

Gaylord's record falls to 7-7-1 overall this season. They play at Cadillac on Tuesday, September 27.

St. Mary Volleyball

The Snowbirds' volleyball team was back to its winning ways on Thursday, September 22 as they picked up another Ski Valley victory over Onaway (25-18, 25-20, 25-23).

Onaway had an 18-17 lead in the first set when Emma Glasby served up seven consecutive points to bring the score to 24-18.

After a quick lead helped the Snowbirds take set two, another Onaway strong start left St. Mary's trailing 17-20 in set three. Macey Bebble stepped up on defense in the final set, adding 12 of her 17 digs in he third set alone to help the Snowbirds defeat the Cardinals.

This marks two consecutive seasons with a win over Onaway after a more than 20-year winless streak against one of the Ski Valley's best volleyball programs.

Ava Schultz led the way with 23 kills, 12 digs, seven blocks and three aces. Caroline Gilling led in the service game, finishing with a game-high 23 service points and two aces along with 11 digs and eight kills.

Other contributors included Bebble (17 digs, three aces), Glasby (eight digs, four kills, two aces), Sydney Grusczynski (22 assists, 19 digs) and Kaylee Jeffers (seven digs).

The Snowbirds improve to 10-2 overall and 3-1 in Ski Valley play. They host Bellaire on Tuesday, September 27 for their next match.

Gaylord Cross Country

It was another great showing for the Bue Devils cross country team as they traveled to Cadillac for the Bandeen Viking Invite on Saturday, September 24.

After the beautiful, late-summer weather that greeted them last weekend in Holly, the cool, damp air of fall in Michigan greeted the runners in Cadillac, but that didn't slow down the Blue Devils as seven runners medaled on the day.

Freshman Katie Berkshire had the best individual finish, placing fifth overall with a time of 19:17.0. She was one of three girls to medal in the varsity race, joined by freshman Lily Sargent (20:21.1) with a 12th place finish and sophomore Skylee Ames (20:37.1) with an 18th place finish.

They all helped the girls' team finish sixth overall with 128 points.

On the boys' side, senior Logan Ames also medaled, finishing 17th overall with a time of 17:22.4

Peyton Thomasma (19:35.8 ), Andrei Derental (19:50.6), and Sami Keiser (23:53.3) all medaled in the JV race as well.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Prep roundup: Gaylord volleyball defeats Alpena, St. Mary beats Onaway