Ask most high school volleyball coaches what the regular season means and two answers will likely emerge: a chance to win a conference title, and preparing for the post-season tournament.

As of yesterday, the Suttons Bay volleyball team is on pace with both goals. On Tuesday, the Norse continued their quest for a Northwest Conference crown when they traveled to Benzie Central and won, 25-16, 25-16, 25-14. The win put Suttons Bay 4-0 in the league, who also played a non-league match afterward on Tuesday and lost to Reed City, 25-23, 15-18.

“We didn’t know we were playing Reed City until late yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon. It was good playing them, though. They’re a real aggressive, hard hitting team, the kind you want to face to find out how good you are,” said Norsemen coach Mike Kelly.

Crystal Dittrich served 25-all with an ace and 9 digs; Anna Pryor had 2 aces, 13 digs, 40 assists; Fran Belanger had 1 ace, 4 kills, 3 digs; Maggie Walters had 4 aces, 17 kills, 4 blocks; Charlotte Stowe had 9 kills, 8 digs; Arianna Guillen and Emily Seeley had 7 digs each; Kelly Kerr had 4 kills, 2 blocks; Emily Send had 6 kills; and Cheyenne Petroskey had 3 kills, 2 blocks.

Suttons Bay is 26-5-2 overall and will host its own tournament Saturday.

The Norse won the Charlevoix Invitational Saturday, defeating the host Red Rayders twice including in the championship match.

Kelly said Suttons Bay and Charlevoix have played each other six times this year – three times in tournament finals.

“Charlevoix is a big team for us. They are going to be playing in our District and so far we are 4-1-1 against them,” he said.

Suttons Bay started the day strong beating Rogers City, 21-12, 21-14; Rudyard, 21-9, 21-20; St. Francis 21-10, 21-9; and Charlevoix, 25-24, 21-18.

To get to the finals the Norse beat conference rival Kingsley, 21-15, 19-21, 15-10, and a much improved Harbor Light Christian team, 12-21, 21-17, 15-11. Suttons Bay then defeated Charlevoix for the second time 25-22, 25-22.

“Harbor Light was much tougher than we expected. They beat us in the first game of the semis and had us down 13-8 before we came back,” Kelly said.

Walters and Pryor were co-most valuable players for the tournament. For the day Walters had 9 aces, 74 kills, 13 blocks, 23, digs; Pryor had 3 aces, 133 assists, 8 kills, 29 digs; Guillen served 50-all with 3 aces, 25 digs; Dittrich served 63-all with 11 aces, 59 digs; Stowe had 2 aces, 32 kills, 43 digs; Kerr had 19 kills, 5 blocks, 8 digs; Belanger served 55-all with 2 aces, 7 assists, 9 kills, 35 digs.

Glen Lake had a yo-yo week, winning its first match of the season at home against Manistee Thursday, then losing at Buckley 14-25, 25-22, 14-25, 25-21, 14-16 to fall to 0-4 in the Northwest Conference. The Lakers are 1-20 overall
Coach Sue Flowers said her team had a slow start in the first game and never recovered. “Our serving was off. When you start slow and have to play catch-up all night, it makes it very hard to recover,” she said.

Dani Frost had 11 kills, 2 blocks; Katie Drzewiecki served 9-all and had 7 kills; Leaha Carey had 7 kills; Crissy Bush had 4 kills; Heather Flowers had 31 assists and served 13-all; and Mandy Brown served 9-all.

The Lakers beat Manistee, 25-16, 25-15, 25-20, to win their first match of the season Thursday. “The girls played really well. They had the intensity, they had the serving, everything went right on Thursday,” said Flowers.

Frost and Gabe Sitts each had 4 kills and 100 percent serving to lead Glen Lake. Carey had 3 kills, 8 digs, 2 blocks; Rachell Brzezinski had 3 kills, 8 digs; and Flowers had 14 assists, 2 kills, 6 digs.

Results of Leland’s match against Mesick Tuesday night and Northport’s match against Bellaire on Thursday were not available before this edition went to press.

Suttons Bay will host its own tournament on Saturday with Glen Lake and Leland both participating. On Tuesday, the Norse will play at Glen Lake. Northport will host the T-C Bulldogs on Friday will play at Traverse City Christian on Tuesday along with the Leelanau School. Leland will play at Frankfort on Tuesday.