12/04/2011 SEASON WRAP UP

Congratulations and kudos are in order for the following players: Erika Nord, Sarah Heckman, Elle Humphries and Madison Jaqua were selected to the first team All-Conference and the All-Region team. Both Hecky and Noody also made 3rd team All-State. Sarah Heckman was picked for the 2011 Gazette All-Area Volleyball Team (middle hitter) and Erika Nord received Honorable Mention (setter). Erika Nord also received individual Academic All-State honors.

A sincere thank you to the entire PCHS family for your kind words of support throughout the volleyball season and thank you so much for the generous gift presented to me at the banquet. I am honored and humbled to be part of such a classy group of parents, players, coaches, and fans.  -Bill Rauch

SATURDAY 11/05/2011

The volleyball banquet this year will be located same as last year, at the Cityscape Event Center in downtown Kalamazoo. It's a fantastic venue that's perfect for the occasion. We park in the ramp (entrance on Portage Road). Once parked, walk through the covered walkway West to the Event Center. When you enter the hallway, our room is on the right. The food is good, and we'll have printed color programs and a 250-photo slideshow to keep you busy in between speakers. Please get your attendance forms to Marshon Humphries by November 10. Click here for the form.

SATURDAY 10/22/2011

The PC volleyball family invented the 6:30 a.m. tailgate party but we're not necessarily proud of it. A huddle of blanket-wrapped athletes and coaches, Amy's breakfast burritos, Jayne's PCHS balls (Philadelphia cream cheese and sausage puff pastries), and 4 varsity players with a dead car battery is an interesting way to start a Saturday. Party goers parted ways with half of the tailgaters headed North to Holland and the other half went South to Sturgis for a full day of tournament volleyball. The rising sun on foggy fields made for a beautiful drive. Photographers call that time of day "the magic hour".

WEDNESDAY 10/19/2011

~ Mustangs SWEEP HUSKIES ~

There are reasons Portage Central has won the past seven football games with cross-town rival Portage Northern. One is nerves. PC football coaching great Brett Foerster understood this. Each week his squad would prepare for the upcoming game using themes. The theme for the week of the big Portage Northern game? CHILL. Stay cool, control your emotions, and you'll avoid mistakes while everything else falls into place. That cool, level-headed MUSTANG swagger was openly displayed in the gym tonight, especially at the older levels.

The Freshman teams each scored with little regard to which side of the scoreboard it posted to. The first set was all Mustangs. Second set was all Huskies. In the third and final set with the score teetering at 15-14, all of the JV and Varsity players from both schools stood cheering near their respective Freshman team's benches. Tension was elevated even more when nerves took over and the teams traded mis-serves. But our Mustangs prevailed, 17-15 to take the match 2-1.

The JV Northern team that showed up didn't. It just wasn't the same tough, scrappy Huskies team that fought so hard for a 2-1 loss to the Mustangs just two short weeks earlier. Tonight, the Mustang JV's sent the Dawgs through the spanking machine. Twice. But there was more to the 25-15 and 25-14 story than just cool heads and calm nerves. The JV Mustangs played nearly mistake-free.

 Game Two started out close. Standing at 6-5 in PC's favor, the Mustangs scored 8 unanswered points. That pretty much put a fork in the Huskies...they were done for the night. 25-13 PC!

PC continued on a roll in the third. Since it was Senior Night, and we had a big lead, Noody had some fun trying to return a serve with her back. Not to be outdone, Hecky brought out her “Home Run Jump Serve” which nearly put a dent in the back wall of the brand new Mustang gym. The students sealed another Mustang victory over the PN rivals with their “Just like Last Week” chant, much to the enjoyment of the Mustang Nation, completing the 3-0 sweep 25-13.

It was great to honor all three of our graduating seniors after the completed Mustang sweep. Congratulations and best wishes for continued success go to our Seniors: Lexi Calloway, Sarah Heckman, and Erika Nord. 

Special thanks to Jim & Cindy VanZoeren for guest authoring!

SATURDAY 10/08/2011

Somehow, 6:40 a.m. at the Park&Ride is getting easier. The JV Lady MUSTANGS made it all worthwhile and put on a memorable show for loyal fans who made the trip. Our Ladies were perfect in pool play, making quick work of Coldwater, Harper Creek, and Hackett in two games each. Next up was Holt in the Gold bracket and another 2-0 performance from top seed Portage Central. The semi-final match paired PC with cross-town rival Portage Northern.  The gym turned into Celebration Central when the Mustangs went hog wild, putting out the last spark of Husky fire in the 3rd game. Host team Battle Creek Lakeview waited with a boisterous fan base in tow for the championship match. Once again it was our very own Mustangs, sporting fresh clean home jerseys, screaming the wind out of Spartan sails and blew them off their own court for the win in the third and deciding game. Be sure to check out the pics near the end of the photo album for some serious Mustang exuberance.

Wednesday 10/05/2011

Here we go at Mattawan... the recent MIVCA Coaches Poll Top-10 Honorable Mention Mattawan. The short road trip to the noisy, dimly lit Wildcat gym ended in a resounding sweep by all three Mustang teams and plenty of happy Portage Central faces. While the Freshmen and JV matches both went down to the wire, not so with the varsity. The Lady Mustangs started slow out of the gate, then poured it on to defeat the Wildcats on Senior Night in their own house. It took our Girls only 3 games to take care of business, quieting the entertaining Wildcat announcer in the process. The win grabbed the 26-14 Mustangs sole possession of first place in the SMAC conference (5-0) with B.C. Lakeview and Portage Northern remaining.

Saturday 10/01/2011

Up again at 5:30 a.m. for the trip to Rockford JV Volley-Rama which could've been called Volly-Marathon. The JV Mustangs played six straight matches without a break to finish the day with 2 wins and 4 losses.

A HUGE THANK YOU to Liz Borre for reporting the varsity scores.  The website appreciates the scores, and the JV parents and players appreciated the updates!

Friday 9/23/2011

HELP!  Attention closet journalists. PortageCentralVolleyball.org is recruiting contributors to write game articles. Be brave! Be creative!  Have some fun! Enjoy fame and fortune! OK no fortune. Parents, players, siblings, grandparents, sign up now. Your article will appear right here in the Mustangs Blog. You can remain anonymous or we'll  give you credit, it's your choice. All we ask is that you email your draft copy by noon of the day after the event. Here are the dates we need articles for:

9/24 Mustang Invite
Mon 9/26 PC Mini Tournament
Wed 9/28 Benton Harbor HS
Sat 10/1 GK Tournament
Wed 10/5 @ Mattawan
Sat 10/8 EK Invitational
Wed 10/12 Lakeshore HS (Parents Night)
Wed 10/19 Portage Northern HS (Senior Night)
Sat 10/22 W. Ottawa Invitational
Sat 10/29 Big 16 Tournament

To volunteer, please email webmaster@portagecentralvolleyball.org or send a text to 269.370.8222 with your name & date.

Wednesday 9/21/2011

What a beautiful fall day for a Big Lake road trip to pay a visit to St. Joseph High School and watch our favorite MUSTANG teams. The Bears can make some noise and it really rattles around in the Bear cave. St. Joe has a great scoreboard that tracks kills and aces for both team's players that are on the court at any given time.

Both the Freshmen and the Junior Varsity Mustang teams put the Bears away early to set up the varsity match with 40 minutes of warmup time. The Show began with the national anthem sung by a talented quintet of St. Joe JV Volleyball athletes. The varsity match went much the same as the evening's previous contests, as the Mustangs had their way with the Bears, putting them out in 3 straight.  The win put the lady Mustangs at 3-0 and on top of the SMAC standings.

Sunday 9/18/2011

Happy one week anniversary to portagecentralvolleyball.org!  Site statistics are as follows:

•  Unique visitors: 410

•  Visits: 479

•  Hits (total files served): 27,870

•  Pages viewed: 974

•  Most popular hours: 10 p.m., 9 p.m., 2 p.m.

•  Length of stay: 58% 0-30 seconds, 13% over one hour

•  Most popular pages: Home, Photos, Rosters, Schedules

•  Top connection sources: 61% direct/bookmarked, 25% search engine, 12% PCHS web site

•  Bookmarked: 21% of visitors (87 visitors)

•  Top searchphrases: volleyball, pictures, pics, Portage Central

•  Photos viewed in SmugMug: 10,572 in 3 days (9/16 - 9/18)

Saturday 9/17/2011

Up at 4:50 a.m. Saturday morning is how the MUSTANG volleyball girls roll. The Mustangs started the Caledonia Elite Classic Invitational volleyball tournament with an easy win over DeWitt, then it was not so easy over Hudsonville in 3. The Lady Mustangs then dropped their next two matches before a long downtime period.  Back in action they worked their way to the Gold championship game by winning a repeat match vs. Hudsonville and sending previously undefeated GR Christian (5-1) packing for home. Luck ran out though in the rubber game of the championship match to #9-ranked E. Kentwood.

The Mustangs took along a pair of extra players, freshman libero Olivia Ryan and sophomore setter Julia Rauch. Olivia played well in her varsity debut, notching several starts and experiencing plenty of play time bolstering the PC defense. Julia played RS bench for several matches, then found herself starting out serving for the 3rd game of the championship match. Rauch literally served the team well and had a few key digs too. Again she found herself in the hot seat, serving game and match point. It was baptism by fire as the saying goes, but she did fine while claiming it was all a blur. The Mustangs finished 4-3 for the day.

Wednesday 9/14/2011

The MUSTANGS obviously enjoy playing in their new gymnasium, handily defeating Kalamazoo Central on all three levels - Freshmen, JV, and Varsity. Coincidently, all three PCVB teams held comfortable leads until the last game of each set, where the KC Maroon Giants were just getting warmed up. It was too little too late though, as all three Mustang teams went on to seal the deal.  Oh by the way, we now know why the new PC gym is so well lit.  It has 648 fluorescent tubes. That's about 25,000 watts of light! Fans, bring your cameras. You don't need expensive lenses to shoot action in our gym!

SunDAY 9/11/2011

This new website was born today.  Please be patient while we get things sorted out.   PLEASE EMAIL ERRORS, OMISSIONS, AND ADDITIONS TO:

webmaster@portagecentralvolleyball.org

 Thank you!

So here we go

The rosters are set and practices have begun in advance of the 2011 high school volleyball season at Portage Central.

The MUSTANGS open their home season September 14 vs. Kalamazoo Central High School. If you haven't yet seen the new PCHS gymnasium, prepare to be amazed. From a photographer's point of view, it's the best lighting we've EVER seen in a gym, including colleges.