Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes advances to regional volleyball final

(PAULA PASCHE – The Oakland Press)

AUBURN HILLS >> Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes needed just three sets to defeat Allen Park Inter-City Baptist to advance to the regional final.

The Lakers (20-14-3) topped the scrappy Chargers 25-18, 25-13 and 25-17 at Oakland Christian on Tuesday night in MHSAA Division 4, Region 31 volleyball action.

Our Lady of the Lakes will face Southfield Christian at 6 p.m. on Thursday. The Eagles defeated Sterling Heights Parkway Christian, 3-0, in the second game.

In the first two sets, the Lakers led start to finish. In the second Gabrielle Hysni got them started serving first to give them a 5-0 lead. Thanks to five straight serves, including two aces, by Bethany Estell, the Chargers were able to tie it at 5-5, but they could never get the lead.

It was a different story in the third set. Inter-City’s Hannah Chelli served 8 straight points to give the Chargers a 9-5 lead.

“We lost some energy we were just a little slow to the ball, we were having some troubles, but we overcame it,’’ Our Lady of the Lakes coach Stephanie Swearingen said. “We met a couple times at timeouts and just talked about what we needed to do and we were able to focus and get through it.’’

Plus Lakers’ libero Abigail Kawka served seven straight points to give the Lakes a 13-9 lead and they were able to hold on to avoid having to go to a fourth set.

“She is pretty lethal with that serve,’’ Swearingen said. “I’m happy when she’s back there and really confident in her that she’s going to get us a good run of points and she delivered just like she needed to.’’

Overall it was an all-around win for the Lakers.

“It’s interesting we’re pretty even rounded,’’ Swearingen said. “My freshman Maya (Lafnear) in the middle, she got five kills today. My right side Brooklyn Robak got five kills which is really awesome. My two outsides — Lexi (Koenig) had seven kills, Natalie (Koenig) had five. Sophia (Hadash) in the middle had six, all right around each other, really well balanced. My setter (Hysni) is able to move the ball around and get a lot of people involved.’’

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