Vikings, Knights finish third at Central's invite

Some of the best volleyball teams in the county were in the lakes area over the weekend and converged at the Walled Lake Central Invitational on Saturday, Aug. 27, including Walled Lake Central, Northern and Western.

The host Vikings (8-2) and Walled Lake Northern finished tied for third-place.

Brighton won the tournament championship by defeating Farmington 25-21, 25-19.

Central went undefeated in pool play, defeating John Glenn (25-16, 25-21), Pinckney (25-20, 25-18) and Fenton (25-20, 25-19).

However, Central fell in the Gold Bracket semi-finals to Farmington (14-25, 18-25).

Senior Colleen Starrs had 31 digs and 4 aces while junior Katie Lusk had 24 kills, 1 ace and 7 digs.

Junior Brittany Guldan had 40 assists, 13 kills, 4 aces and 14 digs, while sophomore Catelyn Girard had 30 assists and 11 aces.

“As the hosts, we were really excited to see a high caliber of teams participate in the event again this year,” said Central Head Coach Cathy Johnson. “Both Colleen and Katie were awarded All-Tournament team recognition for their outstanding play throughout the day.”

As for Northern, the Knights went 1-0-2 in pool play, splitting with Grand Ledge (20-25, 25-18); defeating Livonia Franklin (25-11, 25-16), and splitting with Farmington (15-25, 25-9).

The Knights then defeated Fenton in the Gold quarter-final, 25-17, 25-21, before losing to Brighton in the semi-final, 17-25, 18-25.

Brooke Mayrand was 45-for-45 serving with 6 aces and 113 assists, while Meghan Conrad had 13 kills and 8 blocks.

Jessica Mutrynowski had 17 kills and 9 blocks and was 38-for-40 serving with 8 aces. Courtney Sullivan had 15 kills with 7 blocks, and Courtney Scott added 13 kills along with 31 digs.

“Our setters ran a very balanced offense with 5 attackers scoring double-figure kills for the day,” said Northern Head Coach Renee Miller. “We also served much more aggressively than last week but still managed to have a serving percentage over 94 percent as a team. We had twice as many service aces vs. errors which was one of our goals after last week’s tournament.”

Mayrand and Conrad were both voted to the all-tournament team.

“Brooke is a leader at every position for our team — setting, attacking, blocking and serving, she does it all for us,” Miller said.

“Meghan is an intimidating blocker at the net that forces opposing teams to make hitting errors or set away from her, and those are things that don’t show up in the statistics, but score points for our team,” she added.

Walled Lake Western went 0-1-2 in pool play, falling to Brighton (19-25, 21-25) and splitting with North Farmington (21-25, 25-21) and Rochester (25-21, 19-25).

Western placed third in pool play and was placed in the Silver Bracket, where the Warriors fell to Grand Ledge, 22-25, 23-25.

Senior Nicole Morgan led the Warriors with 29 kills, 32 hitting attempts and 7 aces, while sophomore setter Allie Gluchowski had 24 assists.

“The tournament was the first time the team has officially competed together. It showed we have a lot of potential to be a great team and will be working toward a winning season,” said Western Head Coach Beth Canales.