Harbor Country News ✹ Friday, October 8, 2010 ✹ B1

SPORTS

BRIDGMAN — The Bridg-man Equestrian Team qualified for its third straight state meet by finishing second to just one team — defending Division A state champion Caledonia — at a regional competition held Oct. 2 and 3 at the Barry County Fairgrounds in Hast-ings.

Coach Ali Reifschneider said she has two seniors on the squad, captain Emily Ulrath and Rachel Swords, along with a stellar duo of juniors, Winter Scheer and Elle Barschdorf, and solid sophomores Kirsten Berni and Ashley Kunde.

The freshmen on the team are Alysa Rhyne, Morgan Bailey, Alexis Braddock and Cassie Amicarelli.

“Really everybody does a really good job,” Reifschneider said.

The state meet will be held at the Midland County Fair-grounds in Midland Oct. 14-17.

Following the team’s third straight district championship in mid-September, Scheer said she especially enjoyed compet-

ing in the the Showmanship and Bareback events with her horse, “Petro.”

Barschdorf said the entire team did great, which resulted in another district title in the Bees’ first year as an“A” team — the top division.

“The last two years we were

a ‘B’ team ... so it was pretty cool we could still win it as an ‘A’ team,” she said.

Ulrath said her horse, “Dusty,” did an excellent job in the Saddleseat, Western, Eng-lish and “a little bit of Gaming” at the two district meets held in

Bridgman Equestrian Team off to 3rd straight state meet

Alysa Rhyne of the Bridgman equestrian team and “Shazam” compete in a contesting class during the first of two high school “district” meets held at the Berrien County Youth Fair-grounds. Photo by David Johnson

Bridgman equestrian team members competing at regionals were (front row, from left) Alysa Rhyne, Ashley Kunde, Emily Ul-rath, Winter Scheer, (back row, from left) Morgan Bailey, Kirsten Berni, Rachel Swords, Alexis Braddock, Cassie Amicarelli and coach Ali Reifschneider. Photo courtesy of Sheila Ulrath

NEW BUfFALO — The Bison var-sity volleyball team ended a midseason layoff on Monday, Oct. 4, by sweeping past Cassopolis 25-13, 25-13, 25-13.

New Buffalo led the first game by just a point (14-13) before four kills by Lena Madison and a pair of ace serves from Hannah Ward helped spark an 11-0 finish.

The Bison (5-1) maintained a solid lead for most of the second and third games.

“It’s been a while, so we were pumped up to play,” said Lena Madison.

New Buffalo coach Susan Seifert said her players worked hard to control the tempo of the games.

“Our defensive specialist, Kyra Heit, controlled the ball well off of digs, allowing Eva Balich (11 assists) and Shannon VanPelt (6 assists) to set up our attackers for a total of 17 kills on the night.,” she said.

Lena Madison accounted for nine of those spikes to the gym floor while April Lowe contributed five and and Breanna Workman had two.

Ward came up big serving the ball,

Bison spikers get sweep

Hannah Ward of New Buffalo (right) looks to spike the ball past Cassopolis defender Reese Ellison on Monday, Oct. 4.

Luke Ivers of Bridgman (center, with ball) gains yardage against River Valley on Oct. 1.

THREE OAKS — The Bridgman High School football team’s defense was definitively dominant during the Bees’ 37-0 victory at River Valley on Friday, Oct. 1.

The host Mustangs were limited to 23 yards on the ground and 15 through the air.

Senior linebacker Luke Ivers said the team’s linemen, linebackers and secondary all did their part.

“We kind of overpowered them,” he said. Eric Pappa, a senior defensive end referred to

as “Scooby Doo” in the huddle, said the Bees got some pretty good rushes on the Mustangs when they tried to throw the ball.

Bridgman racked up 323 yards of offense while evening its record at 3-3, but the River Valley defense had some shining moments of its own.

After Bridgman’s first possession yielded a solid drive culminated by Bryce Ponegalek’s 20-yard touchdown run, the Mustangs quickly turned the

ball over three times.The first one, a fumble close to the end zone,

resulted in Josh Bachleda’s 42-yard field goal.The Mustangs were able to keep the Bees out of

the end zone despite yielding short fields two more times, with Bachleda missing a pair of field-goal attempts.

Ethan Zeiger’s interception and long return midway through the second stanza fird up the RV faithful, but the Bee “D” was then able to squelch the home team’s best scoring opportunity.

Bridgman eventually got on track offensively in the second quarter as quarterback Kyle Boersma completed passes to Justin Weber and Bryce Pone-galek — big plays that led to a one-yard scoring rush by Boersma,

“That got morale back up,” said Boersma.Bridgman also got touchdown rushes from

Mitch Hehl (one yard), Boersma (one yard) and Jacob Pappa, also known as “Scrappy,” (six yards).

Bee defense shuts down RV

SOUTH BEND — Bridgman and Berrien Springs each claimed three Lakeland Confer-ence champions during the Sept. 30 Lakeland Conference meet at South Bend’s Leeper Park, while Buchanan had two.

But it was the Shamrocks, who entered the meet in second place behind the Bees, emerg-ing as overall league champs due to a 40-point showing in the tourney. Bridgman and Buch-anan tied for second with 36 points.

Claiming the top spot in the Lakeland for the Bees (who placed second in the final Lakeland standings) were number-one singles player Da-vid Hauck (he defeated Nate Henckel of Buch-anan 7-6, 8-6, 6-3 in the finals); the number-two doubles duo of Adam Klug and Sammi Higgin (they topped Buchanan’s Corey Thompson and Alex Kuhn 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 for the title); and number-three doubles players Zach Bauer and Chad Starbuck (they bested Joey Zahrn and Guiherme Barros of Berrien Springs 6-2, 6-3 in the final match).

Claiming second place for Bridgman was the number-one doubles squad of Josiah Badger and

Joseph Koehler.The Bees were set to get another shot at the

Bucks and Shamrocks on Thursday, Oct. 7, at the regional meet, also to be played at Leeper Park.

Tennis squad edged by Berrien

Adam Klug of Bridgman’s number-two singles team keeps the tennis ball aloft during the Lakeland Conference meet.

See STATE, Page B4

See SPIKERS, Page B4