Written Thursday November 10th at 11:15 PM
The Dragon volleyball players weren't even born the last time the Dragons won a regional championship.
Now in 23 years the Dragons can celebrate a regional championship.
The seventh ranked Dragons celebrated their first regional championship since 1988 and beat the Colts of Troy in three games 25-17, 25-21, 25-21 at in the Dragons Lair however the game wasn't a blowout. "It’s amazing," Dragons head coach Bob Howey said to reporters. "We thought we were going to have a shot after last year. We knew who we had coming back this year. We’ve just kept working and working and working. It was a little bit of a struggle tonight, but we got it done."
The Colts hung in there with the Dragons but the experience and being at home helped the Dragons tonight.
Lake Orion (52-12-3) now advances to the MHSAA State Quarterfinals in a wide open Class A and face the sixth ranked Macomb Dakota Cougars on Tuesday at St. Clair Shores Lakeshore.
The Dragons did not play their most statistical game but took advantage of timely kills and some Colts miscues.
Lake Orion senior Shannon Murdock had seven kills while senior Liz Kalugar added two kills and nine digs. Senior Maddie Hutchinson led all players with 11 digs.
The Dragons have had big crowds in their two previous contests, and hope the big crowd accompany them to St. Clair Shores on Tuesday. "Hopefully, we did enough tonight to get some of them to come out to St. Clair Shores," Howey said of the Lake Orion student section to reporters.
"We’ve never had student sections like we had this week," said Murdock to reporters. "It’s awesome to see how much support we have from our school. We take a lot of pride in our sports here, and we’re just really excited to keep going."
The Colts battled until the very end. Troy came in with a very good game plan, and that was to shut down the middle attack that the Dragons and especially junior Sophie Murdock had that worked against Birmingham Marian in the regional semifinal. "I was very proud of how our girls played," Troy head coach Ed Ruhl said to reporters. "Lake Orion served lights out tonight. I thought our game plan worked great against them. We had to make sure we played our game. The crowd got into it tonight, and I think maybe our girls got a little excited. They’ve got a good team over there."
The Dragons know that their path and their goal is near and the sixth ranked Cougars stand in their way toward their path to Battle Creek. The path may have gotten easier with top ranked Farmington Hills Mercy falling to fifth ranked Plymouth Canton in four games in Brighton. If the Dragons win Tuesday over the Cougars there is that possibility that the Dragons could play fourth ranked Wolves of Clarkston in Battle Creek in the state semifinals depending if the Wolves get past the Chiefs and the Dragons beat the Cougars.
The Dragons have been a focused bunch all season and want to win the whole thing. "We all want it so badly. We’ve all been working so hard. We just refuse to lose." Murdock added to reporters.
Tonight the Dragons lived and get to play another day and get ready for a Oakland County vs Macomb County, a classic OAA Red vs MAC Red battle but we'll see what happens on Tuesday.
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