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By YVETTE LANIER

News Sports Writer

HALE Cinderella has arrived at the ball.

Screams of excitement filled the air at Hale High School as the Hillman Tigers hugged each other and basked in their glory of capturing the district volleyball championship after they roared to a 3-1 over the Mio Thunderbolts Friday night.

Hillman was considered the underdog and its path to the district finals had many giants - Atlanta, Posen and Mio - standing next to the Tigers. Not even their leading hitter for the match, Courtney Jones, who finished the night with four blocks and nine kills, expected them to be holding the trophy.

"I never imagined we would go this far," Jones said. "We were never expected to win this. We lost to Atlanta twice and we lost to Posen twice, and we beat them. Coming in here, and even through all the noise and everything, we played as a team."

On the court stood Tigers head coach Erin Fleming looking down at the piece of shiny hardware in her hands in a look of disbelief.

"It really hasn't hit me yet," said the coach, who was just last year a junior varsity coach at Christian High School in Kalamazoo."I'm really proud of the girls, their aggressiveness, their teamwork. Everything came together in one night, everything they worked together for all season. They gave their all. (I'm) very proud of them. They are very excited to keep going."

In Fleming's rookie season, she came here hoping to bring back a program that won its last district title in 2007. The year had been a rollercoaster one for the Tigers, but they have found success in the postseason, most recently knocking off mighty Posen 3-1 in the semifinals.

"It feels pretty awesome," Fleming said. "This is a first time experience for me. I am proud of them and proud of this school, just HIllman overall and the Tigers' spirit."

Randi Edgar broke open the first game with a kill, her first of 13 for the night, to take a commanding 1-0 lead for Hillman. Both teams traded points back and fourth, with the Tigers eventually pulling away and won on an lift error by Mio, 25-18. In the second game an ace by Courtney Martin put the Thunderbolts up 2-0 and they never looked back. A serving error on the Tigers handed Mio a 25-22 win.

The Tigers didn't let up. They rallied back scoring three straight points in the bottom of the third game, and a block by Jones sealed the 25-23 win. Hitting errors plagued the Thunderbolts in the fourth game and the Tigers managed to walk away with a 25-21 win.

Fans dressed in orange and black ran out of the stands and celebrated the Tigers' championship.

"We took it one step at a time," Fleming said. "I didn't want to come in overconfident by any means. We just came out and played our game tonight."

Additional top contributors for the Tigers were Alissa Clink with 17 assists and three aces, Edgar with 14 digs and Amanda Kennard with 19 digs.

The Cinderella story continues for the Tigers as they travel to next week's regional in Brimley. Fleming is already looking forward to Monday's practice.

"We still have work to do," she said. " Even though we haven't played the teams we're going up against, we're going to keep working hard."