From Coach Bonnie Keepes:

The 8th grade team traveled to Fairfield for their 16 team invitational.

In our pool play we faced Carmi first and beat them 25-18, 25-23. For the first match of the day we didn’t start how I planned, but they fought for it and won.

For the Stats Lyla Keepes 2 aces, 2 kills, Kyleigh Smith 1 ace, 7 kills, 2 blocks, Evie Sellers 1 kill, Riley Hershey 5 aces, Kinley Harris 2 aces, 5 assists, Leah Lewis 2 aces, 2 assists.

Next in our pool we played Wayne City and lost 21-25, 16-25. We sat a match, and Wayne City played much scrappier defense than we did, and hitting errors kept us down. Lyla Keepes 1 dig, Kyleigh Smith  2 ace, 2 kills, 1 dig, Evie Sellers 2 kills, Riley Hershey 2 aces, Kinley Harris 3 assists, Leah Lewis 1 assists, Mercedes Dillard 2 digs.

Woodlawn was our 3rd pool play opponent. We had them on their heels the first set winning 25-11, we were attacking well and scoring quick. The second set we flipped and the beat us 16-25.

The top three teams in our pool all split sets very close, we only played 2 sets even with a split, and it came down to points for rankings. We ended up in the bronze bracket.

Our first match of bronze bracket play we faced Olney beating them 25-12, then dropping 27-29, and taking the third for the win 15-7.  We can start hot the first set and then get to settled in the second letting teams in.  Lyla Keepes 1 ace, 6 kills, 3 digs, Kyleigh Smith 3 aces, 6 kills, 1 dig, 1 block, Evie Sellers 3 kills, Riley Hershey 5 aces, 1 kill, Kinley Harris 2 aces, 5 assists, 2 kills, 1 dig, Leah Lewis 1 ace, 4 assists, Mercedes Dillard 3 aces.

The championship match of Bronze we played Ewing and won 25-12, 25-14. We were on the 5th match of the day so it was nice to play hard and beat them quick.

We had a really fun last match and earned some hardware!  So proud of their fight and finish, with first in bronze.

Takeaways Lyla Keepes 1 ace, 3 kills, 1 dig, Kyleigh Smith 3 aces, 7 kills, Evie Sellers 3 kills, Riley Hershey 1 kill, Kinley Harris 2 aces, 7 assists, Leah Lewis 4 assists, 1 dig, Mercedes Dillard 2 aces, Mylee Farmer 1 dig.