The Howell Central girls volleyball team kicked off the district tournament against Zumwalt North at 7p.m. on Monday, Oct. 24. The game started off, and FZN took an early lead. This lead of 17-12, eventually caused coach Mark McAfee to call a timeout. The timeout seemed to help steady the Spartans as the pulled closer, but they could not pull back close enough and the Panthers of FZN won the first game 25-21.

The second game held a different fate for the Spartans. The girls jumped out to an early lead powered by junior, outside hitter Mallory Dillon who dug out a spike from the opposing Panthers to save the 7-7 tie. Middle blocker Jenna Rekosh followed Dillon’s play with a hard kill by junior, to put the Spartans back on top. Later on, senior outside hitter Sydney Miller added to the Spartan lead with another kill. The Panthers would not go away easy, though. They went on a run and brought the game back within two points, but the Spartans eventually pulled out the win in the second game 25-22.

Game three would prove to be the deciding point for this match-up. The Spartans took this opportunity all the way down to the wire where Dillon delivered the game winning kill to boost the Spartans over the Panthers with a 25-23 win.

“The whole time we knew we had the opportunity to win,” senior defensive specialist Lyndsie Vogel said. “We just had to buckle down and play hard.”

The Spartans take on St. Dominic tonight at 6:30.