Airport volleyball gets rematch

November 20, 2009

Airport Senior High School

Airport volleyball gets rematch

by Jeff Meade , last modified November 17. 2009 11:31AM
- Evening News photo by BRYAN BOSCH Airport's Janelle Nagy passes the ball during the Jets' Class A Regional semifinal win over Westland John Glenn at Carlson. Airport faces Livonia Churchill in the state quarterfinals at 7 tonight at Woodhaven. Spread The News

   Livonia Churchill knocked Airport out of the state volleyball tournament in the quarterfinals last season.
Now the Jets find themselves facing the same Churchill team in another Class A state quarterfinal match. They will meet the Chargers at 7 tonight at Woodhaven.
"The girls are excited," said Airport coach Barb Kohn. "I think our kids are pretty focused. We have kids that have experience in the big games, but so does Churchill. (Coach) Mark (Grenier) does a good job with them. We have to be on our game. If we block well and get the ball to the right hitters, we'll be okay."
Churchill is 52-5 and ranked 12th in the state. Unranked Airport is 48-5-1 and already guaranteed its best winning percentage in school history. The two teams met in late September in the Bedford Tournament with Churchill prevailing in three close game 25-23, 23-25, 15-12.
"We played pretty poor and made a lot of mistakes in that game," Kohn said. "We're blocking better now and that's helping us play better defense. Churchill has two excellent outside hitters and they play great team defense."
Cierra Yetts and Sarah Suppelsa are the outside hitters. Taylor Kerr and Kristi Walker are senior defensive specialists. Junior Cory Urbats is the setter and Kara Kempinski is a fine all-around player.
The Chargers had little trouble in their Regional, sweeping Detroit Cass Tech 25-4, 25-9, 25-11 in the finals and Detroit Cody 25-3, 25-3, 25-7 in the semifinals.
"Our (Regional) competition was probably a little better than theirs," said Kohn whose team swept Dearborn and Westland John Glenn in the Gibraltar Carlson Regional.
Airport is tall and talented. The Jets are led by their middle hitters - 6-2 Miss Volleyball candidate Jessica Nagy and 6-2 Jordan Erz who has put up an amazing kill percentage this season. Julia Leydecker, an exchange student from Germany, has made the Jets even stronger. Sophomore Janelle Nagy sets and hits, right-side hitter Kathy Stewart had 8 kills against Churchill in their first meeting and Michelle Hollister leads the defense.


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