By By SCOTT NOVAK / Dowagiac Daily News
BENTON HARBOR - Get out the brooms.
The Dowagiac volleyball program swept all three matches Wednesday night against host Benton Harbor.
The Chieftains (3-5, 1-0) opened up Big 16 Conference West Division play wtih a 25-14, 25-22 and 25-19 win over the Lady Tigers.
Dowagiac also won the freshman and junior varsity matches.
The Chieftains played their best match of the season in knocking off Benton Harbor, which has a very athletic squad.
First-year coach Carl Greulich was pleased with the effort and even more pleased with the fact that a lot of different players contributed to the victory.
Senior Brittney Reist led the Chieftains to victory with a solid performance.
Reist had a team-high 15 kills and 11 digs.
Jill Billingham also turned in a good performance as she had seven kills and two blocks.
Kim Luthringer finished with nine digs and four aces, while Ashley Urbanski finished with seven digs and four aces.
Jolynn Hawkins contributed two blocks.
Freshmen volleyball
The Dowagiac freshmen volleyball team improved to 3-3 on the year with a three-game victory over Benton Harbor.
The Chieftains dropped the first game, 25-23, but rallied to win the next two, 25-14 and 15-3.
Stephanie Barnas led the team with 29 assists, three aces, three points and a kill.
Dowagiac also got five aces and six points from Shardatsha Fitchett, four aces and four points from Kassandra Leitz, three aces and two points from Kathleen Lindt and two aces and three points from Katelyn Ernzen.
Leitz also had two kills.
JV volleyball
The Dowagiac junior varsity volleyball team posted a 25-18 and 25-23 victory.
Katy Stuppy and Jill Wiesemes had seven and four assists respectively, while Amber Clark had two digs.
Dowagiac also got five aces from Stuppy and four aces from Calie Daniels.
Daniels also led the team in kills with four.
The Chieftains are now 2-2-1 on the season.
Dowagiac's junior varsity squad will compete in the Paw Paw Invitational on Wednesday, Dec. 28, while the varsity hosts an invitational on Dec. 29.