Volleyball Results: Sept. 8
ST. FRANCIS 3, GRACE 1
Grace’s volleyball team was unable to hand No. 19 St. Francis an upset on Saturday in a 3-1 defeat.
The Cougars (14-2, 4-0 Crossroads League) are one of the hottest teams in the NAIA right now with 11 straight victories. Grace was competitive in every set and actually had more kills than USF.
The Lady Lancers (8-4, 2-2 CL) recorded 57 kills at a .235 percentage, but Grace was unable to slow down USF’s attack for the upset.
The Cougars (14-2, 4-0 CL) jumped ahead of Grace early in the first set and held on for a five-point win.
The score was nearly inseparable in the second set, but USF escaped with a 25-23 victory.
Grace won the third set 25-17, the largest margin of the entire match. The Lady Lancers ended the set on a 10-2 run to win the third game.
The match was clinched by USF in the fourth set. The score was knotted late at 19-19, but the Cougars won six of the next eight points to end the match.
Grace’s dynamic offense was spearheaded by Alexa Hill, who amassed 55 assists in just four sets to go along with eight digs.
Caylie Teel picked up a double-double with 18 kills and 14 digs, and Kelsee Zuidema tallied 17 kills on a .325 percentage while adding seven digs and two aces.
Marta Bleed added 12 kills on a .417 percentage, Makaela Lochmueller had 6 kills, 1 solo block and 2 block assists, and Gina Novotny led all players with 27 digs.
The Lady Lancers play twice next week, including at Mt. Vernon Nazarene on Tuesday and home against Huntington on Friday.
NORTHWOOD 3-1 AT CONCORD INVITE
NorthWood continued to play inspired volleyball, and had a milestone along the way, taking third place at the Concord Invite on Saturday.
NorthWood beat Plymouth 2-1, New Prairie 2-0 but lost to West Noble 2-0 in pool play, sending the Panthers to the third-place match where it defeated Jimtown 2-0.
West Noble would sweep all four of its matches to win the title, beating NorthWood, Plymouth and New Prairie in the pool, then defeating Westview 2-0 in the championship match to run its season record to 15-2.
Along the way, NorthWood’s Whitney Gessinger set a personal milestone by recording her 1,000th dig. For the day, the senior libero had 43 digs in the four matches.
Maddy Payne also had a big day, piling up 34 kills, nine blocks and eight aces. Kate Rulli had 22 kills and Caroline Mullet had 79 assists.
NorthWood (15-5) will host South Bend Riley on Monday.
TRITON 0-3 AT TRITON TOURNEY
Triton played competitive matches, but wasn’t able to find a win in pool play at its home volleyball tournament.
Triton lost to Bremen 2-1, to LaVille 2-1 and Oregon-Davis 2-0. Triton had Bremen down a game, but the Lions rallied 25-23 and then won by seven in the decider. LaVille needed to go 29-27 in game one against the Trojans, only for Triton to rally back a game but fall by six in the third. O-D beat the Trojans by three and five.
In the championship match, John Glenn defeated Bremen 25-14, 25-18.
Individual stats for Triton were not provided.
Triton (2-11) will visit Elkhart Christian on Tuesday.
WARSAW JV 4-0 AT MICHIGAN CITY INVITE
The Warsaw JV went 4-0 to win the Michigan City Invite.
Stats and results from the tournament were not immediately provided.
WAWASEE 9TH GRADE 1-3 AT WARSAW TOURNEY
Wawasee dropped its first matches of the season Saturday at the Warsaw freshman tournament.
Wawasee (10-3) fell to St. Joe and Woodlan 2-0 and 2-1 to Elkhart Memorial. Wawasee did win 2-1 against Fort Wayne Concordia.
Stat leaders for the Lady Warriors included Laney Gross with 29 assists and 29 digs, Gloria Slabaugh with 24 digs and 11 kills, Dylan Konieczny with 18 kills and nine assists, Amber Beer with 16 digs and seven kills, and Talia Kuhl with 36 digs.
Warsaw did not provide immediate information on its results from the tournament.
LAKEVIEW 8TH GRADE 3-0 AT LAKEVIEW INVITE
A banner day for the Lakeview eighth grade team, winning all three of its matchups to take the home title.
Lakeview beat Tippecanoe Valley 2-0, West Noble 2-0 then eeked out a 2-1 win over Westview 25-23, 18-25, 15-13 for the championship.
For the day for Lakeview, Caitlyn Patrick had 22 aces, 11 kills and 10 assists, Tessa Graney had 15 assists, 11 aces and five kills, Lauren Eastwood had five aces and four kills and Madison Desenberg had four kills and four blocks.
The Lakeview seventh grade were 2-1 on the day in its tourney, losing to Valley but beating West Noble and Westview.
Tippecanoe Valley did not provide immediate information on its results from the tournaments.