FRUITPORT – The Fruitport volleyball team obviously wanted to win a district championship this week, no matter what it took – and it took a lot.

On Tuesday the Trojans opened districts with a four-set victory over archrival Spring Lake, a team that beat them earlier in the season. On Thursday they were on the brink of elimination after losing the first two sets to Whitehall, then roared back and won the last three to keep their season alive.

On Saturday the Trojans passed the ultimate test – at least at the local level – by beating Montague in a dramatic, back-and-forth, five-set match 3-2 to capture a Division 2 district championship, the team’s first since 2017.

The set scores were 26-24, 25-27, 18-25, 25-17, 15-11. The Trojans will now play Fremont on Tuesday in the regional semifinal round at Comstock Park High School.

The match was packed with drama from the start, with Fruitport coming from way behind to win the first set, blowing a big lead and losing the second set, falling behind early and losing the third, then rallying to win the fourth and fifth sets.

The best part is that is all happened on the Trojans’ home court, in front of a big crowd of loud and excited Fruitport fans.

“We’ve been battle-tested all week,” said veteran Fruitport coach Nicole Bayle, who has now won six district titles in her 16 years at the helm. “We lost the first two sets on Thursday and came back to win the last three. We love drama!

“We always talk about our vision and how we’re going to make it happen. We even did a little envisioning today about how we were going to win that trophy.”

Sophomore Sadie Haase was a major sparkplug for the Trojans, leading the team in kills with 19 kills.

Haase provided big points when they were sorely needed throughout the match, both with her power shots that can overwhelm opponents, and her soft touch that allows her to tap the ball to open spots without much power at all.

She scored the final point of the first set to finish off a huge comeback and give Fruitport a 26-24 win.

She scored the last three points of the fourth set with kills to give the Trojans a 25-17 win and keep them alive.

Haase was huge near the start of the fifth and final set, when Montague had an early advantage. She landed a soft shot to tie the score at 1-1, plunked a shot down in front of an opponent across the net to make it 2-2, hit a hard shot to tie the score again at 3-3, then served an ace two points later to give Fruitport a 5-3 lead.

Her teammates followed her lead and started landing big shots of their won down the stretch. Aubre Johnson had a kill to make the score 6-4, Hope Straley added two kills, with the second one making the score 10-5, then Ash Olson and Kayla Kolberg nailed a pair of kills to put Fruitport up 13-5.

Montague rallied – like both teams did all day – and pulled within two points at 13-11, but the Trojans got the last two points to seal up the match and the championship.

“It feels amazing,” Haase said about winnnig the title. “That was intense and chaotic.  I’m so glad we got it back together and won it.

“We definitely go into slumps where we let other teams back in, but then our goal is to pull it back together, and we did that!”

The match couldn’t have been any closer, and neither team had any intention of giving up.

The first set was tied 11 times, including the last time at 17-17, then Montague won seven straight points on a service run by Laura Borras and built a 24-17 lead.

But the Trojans came roaring back, scoring the last nine points and leaving the gym roaring with a 26-24 win.

Fruitport seemed in control in the second set, building a 21-13 lead. Then Montague took its turn roaring back, winning 14 of the final 19 points to steal a 27-25 win and tie the match at 1-1.

The Wildcats kept rolling and won the third set 25-18 to take a 2-1 lead, then Fruitport won the fourth 25-17 to send the match to the fifth-set tiebreaker.

The Trojans built a big 13-5 lead, then left their fans sweating a bit when Montague pulled within two points, but had enough steam left to get the job done.

Aubre Johnson had 13 kills for Fruitport and Hope Straley added eight.

Defensively Kayla Kolberg led the way with 41 digs while Lauren Riedel had 16.

“The girls have put in a ton of work,” Coach Bayle said. “They are confident and they have learned to play as a team. We have a lot of young kids out there – freshmen and sophomores – who have learned to play in tight spots. We’re so excited about the future, and about Tuesday!”

Britta Johnson paced Montague with 21 kills while Borras had 16. Jaelyn Sundberg set up the offense with 52 assists. Alissa Wynn led the defense with 32 digs.