Carrie Adams tourney helps kick off volleyball season
Once again, the annual Carrie Adams Memorial Tournament helped kick off the high school volleyball season on Saturday with state champion and host St. Philip bringing in several local teams to start the 2022 campaign.
The 28th Carrie Adams Memorial event is in honor of a former St. Philip player, who helped the Tigers win a state title in 1989. Adams later passed away after suffering from anorexia and bulimia.
MORE: 2022 Volleyball Preview: Can state champ St. Philip make it three in a row?
"I thought it was a great first weekend tournament," St. Philip coach Vicky Groat said. "Good competition throughout the day and the girls played pretty well overall. A great way to gauge the things we are doing well and the things we need to prevent. Very pleased with the weekend."
The 16-team tournament was played this year at Harper Creek High School, with St. Philip losing to Centreville in the championship final, 17-25, 25-23, 16-14.
St. Philip edged Kalamazoo Central in three sets in the semifinals and went 4-1-1 on the day. The offense was spread out for the Tigers with Maddie Hoelscher leading with 34 kills with Jaclyn Ashley adding 33, Makenzee Grimm coming up with 29 and Kate Doyle 22. Freshman Charli Greger had 112 assists on the tournament.
Also helping to get things started for volleyball teams was the Gull Lake Invitational, which had a loaded field that also included Lakeview.
Host Gull Lake went undefeated on the day to win the championship and beat Lakeview in the Gold Finals, 25-22, 15-25, 15-13. Neither team had dropped a set all day. Gull Lake beat Niles in the semifinals and Lakeview defeated Grand Ledge in the other half of the bracket.
Grace Wood led Gull Lake with 47 kills and 12 aces with Sophie Crawford adding 117 assists and 26 kills. Taygan Corstange helped direct the defense with 46 digs.
"Coach (Heather) Sawyer has a great group this year and Lakeview will see a ton of success this year," said Gull Lake coach Eric Belz. "Tough for any team to lose a match that saw such great rallies and big swings and, at times, ridiculous defense."
Anya Rankin led Lakeview with 34 kills on the day with Jenna Morris coming up with 24 and sisters Madie Belmore and Katie Belmore adding 22 and 19, respectively. Katie Belmore added 10 blocks. Aisling Rankin controlled the offense with 107 assists with Hazuki Ishikawa coming up with 35 digs and nine aces.
This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Carrie Adams tourney helps kick off volleyball season
