Dragons punch first ever ticket to Battle Creek, defeat Cougars in five games. Play the arch rival Wolves in Battle Creek next.

Written Tuesday November 15th at 11:56 PM

The Lake Orion Dragons theme this season is "Refuse to Lose."

With the fans from Macomb County, the referees, most from Macomb County were against them. It seemed like everything was against them and lets not add to the fact that the Dragons were down two sets to none to the Macomb Dakota Cougars heading into the third game.

People would originally thought that the Dragons would panic, fold, and prepare for next year but this isn't your ordinarily team, this team is something special.

The seventh ranked Dragons (53-12-3) went on and defeated the sixth ranked and Co Macomb Area Conference Red Division champion Cougars (32-13-2 and shared the MAC red championship with Marysville) in a five game thriller 26-28, 21-25, 25-14, 25-22, and 15-13 in the Class A State quarterfinals at Lake Shore in St. Clair Shores.

The Dragons now advance to the Kellogg Center in Battle Creek in the Class A State semifinals and play a familiar foe in arch rival and the fourth ranked Clarkston Wolves (57-5) at 7:15 PM on Thursday night. Clarkston eliminated fifth ranked Plymouth Canton in a five game thriller in which one call changed the entire outcome.

Now back to the game in St. Clair Shores Lake Shore, every set was close except for the third game where the Dragons seemed to change tempo in a rowdy game featuring both student sections.

Both the Dragons and Cougars went back in fourth in the first game. The Cougars were led by sophomore Carli Snyder who matched Dragons senior Shannon Murdock kill after kill. The game went either way but the Cougars and Snyder found a way to survive set one despite bad officiating 28-26 and going up one game to none.

Set two went to the Cougars 25-21 and they went up two games to none. Macomb Dakota controlled tempo, forcing Lake Orion to make some crucial mistakes with side outs and serving errors and also Snyder took control of the game as well for Macomb Dakota.

With the Dragons down two sets, Dragons Coach Bob Howey told his team that they have been down this path before. “After that second game we told them to take it one game at a time. We’ve been here before. Just find our game. We can’t keep playing their game.” Howey said to reporters.

Set three went to the Dragons, with their backs against the wall. Lake Orion went on a 13-1 run led by aces by senior Gwen Motley and kills by Murdock and fellow seniors Liz Kalugar and Taylor Hargraves and ran way with a 25-14 victory making the match at two sets to one in favor of Macomb Dakota.

Dragons junior Sophie Murdock knew that after the third game her teammates started to gain the confidence they needed. "They were really vocal, we all said, stay strong. Stay motivated. We can’t get down. We wouldn’t let ourselves get down and we came back and won (the third set and eventually the match). “That third game gave us a lot of confidence. It gave us momentum and took it away from them.” Murdock said to reporters.

Macomb Dakota coach Tracie Ferguson knew that game three was going to be tough but they did force the Dragons to call timeouts, so it wasn't all bad. "Our serve-receive kind of collapsed and one thing led to another in that third game," Ferguson said to reporters. "We’ve talked about mental toughness all year and being able to shake things off, but sometimes it gets a little tough. They still fought. We made them call timeouts in the third game."

Set four was dramatic, both sides were even during the contest. The only negative was a yellow card on assistant coach John Kalugar, which did not make the Orion faithful happy. The largest lead any team had was four when the Dragons took a 15-11 lead but the Cougars answered by tying the score up at 19-19 and then going ahead 21-20 before Howey called a timeout calming his team down. Lake Orion then responded by going on a six to three run to close the fourth set and win 25-22, tying the game up at two games a peace.

Set five was also dramatic. The Dragons built a nine to five lead early. Then the Cougars answered by cutting the game within two points. The Dragons then built their lead yet again to 13-8 thanks to kills by Kalugar, Shannon Murdock, Sophie Murdock, and senior Maddie Hutchinson but the Cougars yet again responded, going on a 5-0 run to tie the score up at 13-13 a piece but the Dragons behind Murdock and Kalugar got the final two points and won 15-13, sending the Orion crowd in a crazy madhouse.

Lake Orion was led by Murdock's 21 kills, three blocks, three aces and 13 digs. Murdock's sister Sophie had nine kills and four blocks. Kalugar had 11 kills and 18 digs. Senior Angelica LeDonne had four kills, all four of them came from the middle of the court. Hutchinson added 32 digs, senior Dana Schrauben had 27 assists and fellow senior Gwen Motley had 24 assists.

Macomb Dakota was led by Snyder's 18 kills, four blocks, and 22 digs. Snyder is also being looked at by scouts to go to possible Division One schools for volleyball as a sophomore. Junior Megan Downey had 11 kills while fellow junior Kylie Churches had seven kills and four blocks. Senior Jessica DeVriendt had 17 digs and senior Danielle Spicuzzi and junior Megan Manierski combined for 36 assists.

Ferguson added that "They were the better team tonight. They have a lot of weapons and we just came up a couple points short. We came out strong and to keep up that momentum might seem easy, but it’s not. Knowing the way we played them this season, we knew they wouldn’t give up. If they know what’s working for them, they’ll do anything and everything to make sure it keeps happening until we adapt. We just adapted a little too late today."

The Dragons and the Wolves are very familiar with each other despite the fact they are rivals. The Dragons in tournament play have beaten the Wolves twice while the Wolves have beaten the Dragons once in tournament play but the Wolves took the OAA Red Championship in a five game thriller over the Dragons on October 18th in Lake Orion. That game will have the Dragons motivated and wanting a bit of revenge for that loss.

We'll see what happens but the Dragons live another day and a trip to Battle Creek is in the very near future.