MONTICELLO — River Ridge defeated Black Hawk in the Gold bracket, while Juda won the Silver bracket over Pecatonica at the Monticello tournament Aug. 31.
“I thought overall we played well,” said Rachel Wolff, Black Hawk head coach. “We started a little slow, but we are still trying to solidify our strongest lineup.”
In pool play, Black Hawk split with River Ridge 19-25, 25-12, then defeated Juda 25-11, 25-17 and Albany 25-7, 25-8. Juda split with Albany in pool play 16-25, 25-20 and lost to River Ridge 9-25, 15-25. Albany lost to Ridge Ridge 8-25, 7-25.
“The morning was a good chance for everyone to see time,” Juda coach Scott Anderson said. “We ran into the top two teams in the tournament with Black Hawk and River Ridge. It was a good chance to see really strong competition.”
Monticello and Belmont were the top two teams in the other pool play division. Monticello split with Belmont 25-14, 26-24, then the Ponies split with Pecatonica 25-20, 24-26. Monticello also defeated Palmyra-Eagle 25-17, 25-11. Pecatonica knocked off Palmyra-Eagle 6-25, 18-25, but lost to Belmont 13-25, 15-25.
In the Silver bracket, Pecatonica knocked off Albany and Juda defeated Palmyra-Eagle in the semifinals. Juda beat Pecatonica 18-25, 26-24, 15-12 in a barn-burner Silver championship match.
“In the afternoon we really played some solid defensive volleyball, minimizing errors and digging everything,” Anderson said. “My seniors did a nice job holding the team together when we had our slow start in each game. As a team stat, I was most proud of our number of digs for the day — 252. It shows that we simply got after everything. More than once we saved balls that should have been a point for our opponent and we made it our point.”
River Ridge topped Monticello in the Gold bracket semifinals, while Black Hawk controlled Belmont throughout. River Ridge tipped the warriors 25-20, 21-25, 15-9 in the Gold championship.
Bailey Butler finished the day with 58 kills to lead Black Hawk.
Wis. Heights 3, New Glarus 1
NEW GLARUS — After taking the opening set against the Vanguards, the Glarner Knights couldn’t hold on, losing in four sets 25-22, 18-25, 11-25, 19-25 Sept. 3.
New Glarus freshman Grace Nommensen had 18 assists while junior Alexah Mellenberger had eight kills. Senior Lily Himmelmann had seven kills and sophomore Emma Marty finished with three blocks. Wisconsin Heights was led by Jada Wood’s three blocks and 30 assists, and Ashley Adler’s 10 kills and nine digs.
The Knights fell to 0-2 in Capitol South Conference play.
