(Photo by Janie Reeves)
The Three Rivers volleyball team defended its title at Saturday’s Wolverine Conference tournament, beating Vicksburg in the finals, 25-21, 23-25, 25-16, 20-25, 15-13. The two squads went undefeated in their respective divisions during the regular season.
Navigating pool play with victories over Otsego and Comstock, the Wildcats cruised past South Haven in the quarterfinals, 25-17, 25-15, before scraping out a 25-18, 19-25, 15-11 win over Plainwell in the semis.
Kalie Cole, Hannah Landis, Carly Nichols and Teagan Reeves were all named the All-Wolverine First Team for their efforts. Cole finished with 98 assists, Landis served five aces and tallied 41 kills, 17 blocks and 31 digs, Reeves had 13 aces, 50 kills and 15 blocks and Nichols registered four aces, 29 kills, nine blocks and 33 digs.
“The kids played well all day,” Three Rivers coach Brandy Stalhood said. “I am so proud of them. Four kids made all conference first team, which is huge since only eight athletes receive the honor. Our toughest matches were with Plainwell and then the finals. We knew that Plainwell would be out for blood since we had beaten them earlier in the year during our crossover match. They hit hard and placed the ball well, but we were right there with them.”
Morgan Roderick added 11 kills and eight blocks, Molly Hawkins recorded four aces and 29 digs and Taylor Schultz contributed 29 digs.
Visit the Scoreboard page for complete tournament results.
“We struggled some with serving consistently through the day, which didn’t allow us to score many runs,” Stalhood explained. “In the finals, we knew that Vicksburg is a very scrappy team, and there were some long rallies. They were undefeated in the East Division, so it was exciting to see the top two teams up against each other. At one point we called upon our bench, who handled the pressure well and stepped right up and did a great job. It’s nice to see the girls play at a high level and not back down. It’s been an awesome conference season being undefeated in our division, and then taking the tournament.”