Vikings, Lakers fare well at local volleyball tourneys

Walled Lake Central hosted its annual Viking Varsity Invitational volleyball tournament on Saturday, Aug. 25, with the host Vikings coming in third-place.

Central completed pool play with victories over Livonia Franklin (25-23, 25-16) and Berkley (25-17, 25-12) and a split with Rochester (15-25, 25-14).

The Vikings (7-2-1) advanced to the Gold Bracket, where they then defeated Farmington Hills Harrison in three games (25-23, 31-29, 15-6) in the quarter-finals before falling to Fenton (16-25, 18-25) in the semi-finals.

Fenton would then fall to North Farmington in the invitational’s championship match.

“I’m very pleased with our results. We played against some very tough opponents and worked on the new offense and defense that we have been implementing during practice the last week,” said Central Head Coach Cathy Johnson. “All of our players are adjusting to these changes very well. We have some areas that we are still changing and I’m looking forward to a few weeks of practice prior to the start of our league play so that everyone has more time to make these adjustments.”

Brittany Guldan had 35 assists, 21 kills, 9 aces, 21 digs and a block, while Catelyn Girard had 24 assists, 16 kills and 10 digs.

Alex Picardal had 49 digs and six aces, while Mikaela Beck had 21 kills, five aces and nine blocks.

The Vikings were coming off a strong performance in the Traverse City Invitational the previous weekend, in which they advanced to the tournament’s semi-finals where they fell to Traverse City St. Francis in three games.

Walled Lake Northern went 1-1-1 in pool play at the Viking Invitational, as it lost to Fenton (15-25, 19-25) and split with Farmington Hills Harrison (25-20, 14-25) before defeating Brighton (25-19, 25-21).

The Knights advanced to the Silver Bracket, where they defeated Wayne Memorial (25-16, 25-16) in the quarter-finals before defeating Auburn Hills Avondale (25-16, 25-22) in the semi-finals.

Northern then defeated Brighton in the Silver Bracket finals, 25-18, 25-16, to finish with four straight wins for new Head Coach Gus Dumlao.

Courtney Sullivan led the Knights with 34 kills and eight total blocks while Katie Simon had 47 assists and Melissa Griffiths had 63 digs.

Northern will next host Huron Valley Lakeland to begin Kensington Lakes Activities Association (KLAA) North Division play on Thursday, Sept. 6, while Central will play at Waterford Mott that same night.

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Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes was the runner-up at the Auburn Hills Oakland Christian Tournament on Aug. 25 after falling to the host school in the final, 25-27, 25-21, 13-15.

The Lakers (6-3-1) were led by Haley Howell with 19 assists, three kills, an ace and three digs, while Courtney Wightman had 4 aces, 6 kills, a pair of blocks and 4 digs.

Allison Samulon had 2 aces and 7 kills, while Kristina Krupiak had 4 aces, 5 kills and 4 digs.