MUSKEGON TWP. – A little of a year ago, Sadie Haase never got the chance to serve, and the Fruitport volleyball team lost a lot.

A great deal has changed since then.

Haase, Fruitport’s powerful middle hitter, has always been great at the net, but was always benched when she rotated to the back row, because that wasn’t her strength.

So she worked hard on that part of her game, earned the right to stay in the lineup when she rotated to the back, and became a really good server in the process.

That new skill was on display on Saturday during Fruitport’s district tournament championship match against Montague at Orchard View High School.

Haase successfully served 11 straight points – including six aces during that impressive run – allowing the Trojans to expand a 7-3 edge to an 18-3 lead in the third set.

A few minutes later Fruitport nailed down the third-set victory, which clinched a 3-0 sweep over the Wildcats and the Division 2 district championship.

The set scores were 25-22, 25-14, 25-9. The Trojans now advance to play Forest Hills Eastern on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the first round of regionals. The match will be on FH Eastern’s home court.

“That was crazy,” said Haase, who finished with a team-high nine aces in the match. “Every time I went to serve my stomach tightened up, and I was just thinking, ‘Please make it!’ I have worked on my serve a lot.”

Haase’s eye-opening service run was a really good example of how far the Trojans have come in the last year.

They used to be a team full of players who struggled to do a lot of things. That was evident in their combined 30-52 record in 2022 and 2023.

This year the Trojans found their confidence and their groove, posting a 34-11 record so far while winning the O-K Silver conference championship and now the district title.

The talent has always been there, but learning to win was a process, according to Fruitport Coach Nicole Bayle.

“I think it started to happen about mid-September, when we started to recognize the tools we had, and the ability and high ceiling we had,” the coach said. “We talked about speaking it into existence first, communicating that confidence with each other, like we knew it was going to happen.

“As September started to wrap up, we started seeing the pieces come together and we realized we had something special going on.”

Haase, who vividly recalls all of the losing of the past, thinks one particular loss earlier this season actually kicked the Trojans into gear.

They made the finals at the GMAA city tournament against heavily-favored Mona Shores and won the first two sets before losing the match. Despite the disappointment, the experience told the Trojans something about themselves, according to Haase.

“We played some teams early this year that skill-wise we were a little better than, but mentally we weren’t there yet,” she said. “It took a while to gain our confidence to know that, hey, we can do this. Nobody expected us to win the first two sets (against Mona Shores) and we showed that we could.”

Even with their newfound confidence, the Trojans still have a tendency to flirt with defeat before turning on the jets and taking control.

That happened on Thursday when Fruitport struggled early in the district semifinals before beating Whitehall in straight sets.

It happened again on Saturday, when the Trojans really struggled out of the gate and had to battle hard to win the first set.

They fell behind 6-3, rallied and built a 12-9 lead, then battled to a 20-20 tie.

Fruitport finally gained the upper hand by winning five of the last seven points, and finished off the set with a big kill by Haase.

The second set was also close for a while, with the teams playing to an 8-8 tie.

Then a 9-1 Fruitport run – sparked by three straight kills from Ellie Stroup and four straight service aces by Gracelynn Olson – left the Trojans with a comfortable 19-10 lead, and they cruised to the 25-14 win.

The third and final set was also close for a bit, with Fruitport leading 6-3, before Haase’s long service run removed all doubt.

Something about having to fight to get ahead brings out the best in the Trojans, according to Coach Bayle.

“I attest that to our maturity on the court,” she said. “We recognize that we can step forward and win. We can play with an opponent till 10, but at 10 points we have to prove we’re the better team.”

Fruitport benefitted from a great service game, piling up 20 aces in the match. Olson finished with seven aces while Tara Sweet had three, to go with Haase’s team-leading nine.

“It’s a huge strength for us,” Bayle said. “I am obsessed with serving. We work on it every day. We know if we can get an opponent out of their system right away, with a hard serve or a good location serve, we have a good chance to finish it off.”

One big star for the Trojans was Stroup, a junior who led the team with nine kills. Haase and Olson each added six while Izabel Hanson-Wilbur chipped in five.

Those stats were a big change from the norm, because Haase almost always leads the team in kills.

“Stroup really played great today,” Bayle said. “We knew we really needed some great outside play from her to be successful and she stepped right up.”

Olson set up the Fruitport offense as usual with 23 assists. Sweet led the defensive effort with 13 digs while Stroup and Hanson-Wilbur each had 11.

“I think losing last year sucked, but it also gave us the mentality of not wanting to go through that anymore,” Haase said. “The team this year has been amazing. Our chemistry is great. We may fight and stuff a little bit, but at the end of the day we are one big family.

“Fruitport volleyball is back!”