Dan Stickradt
Sports Scene
Twitter: @LocalSportsFans
BATTLE CREEK — Romeo proved that the only state rankings that really matter are the ones released at the end of the season — and that came at Novi’s expense.
The second-ranked Wildcats were finally overcome by Romeo’s lethal attack, as the eighth-ranked Bulldogs pulled rank and recorded a 3-2 victory in the Class A state championship match at Battle Creek’s Kellogg Arena.
Romeo won the first two games, 25-23 and 25-22, yielded the third and fourth games to Novi, 25-14 and 27-25, and stormed back to win the fifth and deciding game, 15-9, and clinch its first state title.
Previously, Romeo lost in the 1997 Class A state final to Portage Northern, and it reached state semifinal round in 1999.
“We started to see the change a couple of years ago in our district opener against Clarkston. We didn’t win that game, and Clarkston was ranked really high at the time, but I knew we could become a good team in a couple of years, and here we are,” commented Romeo coach Stacy Williams. “We beat Clarkston in the regional finals this season, and I think we really started to believe that we could win this year. We beat Mercy in the quarters and Temperance Bedford in the semifinals, and I think they were ranked No. 1. We just came together at the right time.”
Novi finished the year with a record of 54-6-1. It had reached the winter 2007 state semifinal round but had not been back to Battle Creek since then until this season, and came up agonizingly short.
“It’s amazing what this team accomplished,” said Novi coach Jennifer Cottrill, who mentioned that her squad faced numerous top 20 teams along the way. “We came back on Grand Haven [in the state semifinal round] after being down 2-0. Then we come back in the state finals again after being down 2-0. I think we just couldn’t hang on to the momentum [in Game 5].
“I couldn’t be more prouder of this team. We have come such a long ways since I came here. That’s a credit to the girls,” continued Cottrill. “We have established Novi as one of the top teams in the state. That wasn’t always the case here.”
Romeo junior Gia Milana, a 6-foot-1 middle, who is considered the leading candidate for the 2015 Miss Volleyball title, clinched the match that took 2 hours to complete with a thundering kill down the middle. She was a consistent thorn in Novi’s side.
“We wanted to put Romeo on the [volleyball] map,” said Milana.
Milana finished 50 for 64 attacking and had a match-high 29 kills, nine digs, and three aces in leading the Bulldogs. She did not do it alone. Jodie Kelly added 13 kills on a 30-for-33 attacking performance, Lauren Korth chipped in 11 kills and 43 assists, and Katherine Betzing finished with 20 digs for the Bulldogs, who finished the year at 45-8-1.
“I think Gia is our leader out there and she handles it well,” said Williams. “She’s our go-to player, no question about it. But other teams know that she’s our go-to player and they key on stopping her. But that leaves others open, and we have others that can step up and we showed that again today.
“I think the difference for us in Game 5 is we went back to being aggressive and going after them,” continued Williams. “We didn’t always do that in the third and fourth games.”
Two kills by Victoria Iacobelli and a service point from Erin O’Leary gave Novi the Game 4 victory. The Wildcats fell behind 8-4 in the fifth game and could never recover.
Milana had seven kills and Korth added two block-kills in the fifth game, including the 14th point to set up the match-clincher.
Cottrill said that, at times, Novi could not stop Milana, who was the “X-factor” in the contest. “She’s a great player,” said Cottrill. “We did stop her some in the third and fourth games. But she gave them some momentum in the fifth game, and we ran out [of steam]. Plus, she’s so tall and we are not very tall at all. Our tallest players are 5’9″, maybe 5’10”. At times, [Milana] just hit over us.
“We hope this [builds] good things to come,” continued Cottrill, who also coaches in the Legacy Club Volleyball system. “We have some good players that will come back next season. Hopefully, they remember how this feels [to lose in a state championship match] and come back next season hungry.”