By YVETTE LANIER

News Sports Writer

The regular season has officially wrapped up and now it's time for some district volleyball action.

The schedule is spread out over the course of the week, with teams like the Alpena Wildcats not seeing any action until Saturday.

Serving up the first ace will be Hillman, which takes on Atlanta at Hale High School at 6 p.m. today.

Fresh from playing in the Forest Area Invitational over the weekend, Hillman coach Erin Fleming said the stiff competition they faced in the tourney was preparation for district play.

"I like to play the better teams," said the first-year coach. "We get a chance to work hard and really work on our weak areas.

"We're going to hold a walk through Monday morning, and girls should be ready to play Monday night."

The last time these two teams met, Atlanta took both games over the Tigers. That was the regular season and Fleming said they're both 0-0.

"It's a fresh start and we're going to take that into Monday night, go out and play our best," she said.

The Tigers will be with out middle hitter Amber Kolcan, who's out on crunches. To deepen her bench, Fleming pulled three players from junior varsity.

On Wednesday in Hale's gym, Posen will play the winner of the Hillman/Atlanta game at 6 p.m.

After falling in the Presque Isle Championship last Wednesday, Vikings coach John Dietlin said his girls are going to take what they learned there and make the necessary changes in districts.

Though don't expect too many changes.

"We're going to think about what we did well and what our deficiencies were," Dietlin said. "Then we're going to analyze them, just like we normally do, and how could we have changed something here and how we could have changed something there.

"In my opinion, even though the score might not always indicate it, we're off by just a little bit, so we're just going tweak a little bit here and a little bit there and I think we'll be just fine when it come to districts.

"We're very familiar with the teams that are playing in it and we should be OK."

Mio, Fairview and the host Eagles also are in the bracket.

Rogers City faces off against Oscoda at 7 p.m. today.

The Hurons will be playing with their seventh man as it plays host to districts this year.

In 2008, a young Hurons' squad didn't go far in districts, and this year the Hurons are a lot stronger and faster. With more experience under their belts, head coach Kristy Smolinski said they are a lot more confident going in this time around.

"We play Oscoda, and we should play well," Smolinski said. "We've got home court advantage and if we use it in the right way, it should be positive."

Other teams in Rogers City's district include Alcona, which awaits the Rogers City/Oscoda winner on Wednesday, and Inland Lakes and Whittemore-Prescott, who also meet on Wednesday.

Onaway aims for a fourth straight district title when it plays the winner of the Johannesburg-Lewiston and Burt Lake Northern Michigan Christian to start districts at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at Gaylord St. Mary.

The Cardinals wrapped up the regular season winning the Presque Isle Championships last week with their offensive and defensive weapon Amanda Pomranke leading the way with 18 kills, four aces and 33 digs.

Coach Steve Watson said today will be his girls first day of practice since capturing the title. Due to do other events scheduled in the gym, and no classes on Friday.

Thankfully, he said, his team finished up the season playing quality teams like Posen and Rogers City.

"The two days prior to districts on Wednesday, we'll just try to touch on all the basic skills," Watson said. "We're going to work on our defense again. We're not going to change up a whole lot of what we did.

"We're going to take our game in there and compete."

It'll be almost a week before the Alpena Wildcats get a spike at the ball.

The Wildcats travel to Traverse City Central and will play Marquette on Saturday.

It'll be plenty of time for the Wildcats to recover from a 3-0 loss to Petoskey on Wednesday.

To keep her girls fresh and focused, Wildcats coach Melissa Doubek said they have invited some adult volleyball players to practice. The five days will also give those players battling injuries a chance to heal and rest.

Doubek said over the course of the week, they'll work on reducing errors, passing and attacking errors and perfecting their quick offenses. She said they'll be ready to go against Marquette come game time.

Traverse City West, Gaylord and Traverse City Central also are part of district play along with the Wildcats.