Lady Warriors haul hardware home

By Lenny Sementi
The volleyball team bus had a little more weight to tote on the way home from Paris Saturday Sept. 22.

Lydia Miller’s squad captured third place hardware upending a good West Vigo, Ind., team in straight sets. Tuscola reached the third place match with a 1-1 effort in pool play beating Lawrenceville in two before falling to a good Tri-County squad.

Maddie Green posted a very well rounded stat sheet at the end of the tourney. The junior boasted 48 assists, 18 service points, seven digs, five aces, and four kills. Karli Dean was tops in the kills department checking in with 26, while also blocking six at the net for points. Miller was credited with nine kills in the three matches. She also found her way to 15 service points, three aces, and 20 saves. Speaking of saves it was business as usual for libero Natalie Bates who dove her way to 26 digs in just two matches while also serving up two aces and four assists. Lexie Russo, who was strong in both the front and backcourt, came up with 14 saves and seven kills. Fellow senior Sydney Watson did her share of damage at the service line tallying 16 points, which included five aces.

Tuscola ran away and hid in game one of the third place tilt by utilizing a pair of five-point runs to build an early eight-point advantage en-route to a 25-14 set one victory over West Vigo. Karli Dean was on a mission for the Warriors firing away to the tune of 13 kills in the contest. She had two big ones early in set two, which set the tone for a 25-21 victory securing the match and third place honors. Green notched 13 assists in a match that saw Tuscola dominate the service line hammering home a combined seven aces.

Green was strong in the day’s opener against Lawrenceville as the Warriors dominated in a 25-16, 25-12 sweep. She set 14 assists finding the Dean sisters eight times in the two-game contest. Bates, who had two assists of her own to go with her match high 10 digs, found McKinlee Miller twice helping the senior hitter to a team best six kills. Watson was strong in the back row off the bench as was Jessie Martin, while Kendyl Ring and Marissa Russo subbed in doing damage at the net.

The full story can be found in the Wednesday, Sept. 26 edition of The Tuscola Journal.