Waterloo, Columbia shine in tourney play ahead of showdown

Pictured is the Waterloo High School volleyball team with its second place trophy in the Carbondale tournament. The ‘Dogs battle Columbia at home on Thursday. (submitted photo)

Local high school volleyball teams participated in tournaments last week ahead of their respective conference schedules.

Following a big two-set win over Belleville East on Thursday, 25-12, 25-8, Waterloo played five matches in the Carbondale tournament over the weekend.

The Bulldogs finished in second place overall, losing in the title match to O’Fallon in three sets, 16-25, 25-21 and 6-15.

Kelsey Hamann was named to the all-tournament team.

Waterloo defeated Salem in two sets (25-16, 25-16) and Herrin in three sets (25-22, 24-25, 16-14) before falling to Massac County in two sets. In the playoff portion of the tourney, Waterloo rebounded to beat Carbondale in two sets (25-17, 25-16) before the loss to O’Fallon.

Waterloo head coach Angie Crawford credited the recent play of Emelia Modglin, who led the team in points with 13 against Belleville East, Mallory Scharf, Mia Reed, Kylie Albrecht and Sydney Ratz in addition to Hamann for their stellar play of late.

“Our blocking finally kicked in,” Crawford said.

The Bulldogs played Tuesday at East St. Louis. The result was not known at press time.

Waterloo next plays Thursday night at home against cross-county rival Columbia.

The Eagles (7-0) are coming off their third straight Marissa-New Athens Tournament title, winning against Chester, Sparta, Valmeyer, Gibault and Red Bud.

All of Columbia’s wins so far this season have come in two sets except for Friday’s match against Gibault.

“Against Gibault, we attacked 108 times and only had 28 kills,” Columbia head coach Kelly Landgraf said. “That says a lot about the blocking and defense of Gibault.  They did a wonderful job keeping our offense under control.”

The Eagles topped Red Bud in two sets to take the title.

“It was a great opportunity for our program to win three years in a row,” Landgraf said.

The coach praised her team’s experience and senior leadership in pulling out of tough spots along the way.

“We were able to get the big plays when we needed to allow us to advance,” she said.

Kelly Metter and Jordan Rippelmeyer were named to the all-tournament team. Rippelmeyer led the team in kills with 7 against Valmeyer.

“Defensively, we continue to have different players leading us in digging and serve receive,” she said.

Gibault took fourth place in the Marissa-New Athens tourney, defeating Pinckneyville, Steeleville and Dupo before losses to Columbia and New Athens.

“We blocked well against (Columbia), which made them have to find different ways to find kills,” Gibault head coach Heather Ebert said.

Kelly Dooley and Lauren Schmidt were named to the all-tourney team for the Hawks.

Dooley leads the team this season in aces with 19 and digs with 51.

Lauren Goldschmidt leads Gibault in serve percentage (98 percent) and kills (49).

The Hawks played Tuesday night at Notre Dame.

Valmeyer had a seventh place showing in the Marissa-New Athens tourney, posting wins against Chester, Sparta and Trico with losses to Columbia and Steeleville.

Miranda Kaufmann was named to the all-tournament team. She led all scorers with 36 points scored and was second in attacks with 25 kills to Tiffany Brewer’s 26. She also notched 46 assists during the three-day tourney.

Brewer posted nine blocks during the tourney. Jordyn Killy served 100 percent during the tourney, and ended the tourney with a 56 percent kill average.

Libero Morgan Redohl led the Pirates defense with 7.2 serve receives per game and 4.6 digs per game.

Valmeyer played at Lebanon on Tuesday and will play at Red Bud on Wednesday.

Dupo bounced back from losses in the Marissa-New Athens tourney to Pinckneyville and Gibault with a two-set win Thursday against Madison.

The Tigers have been led this season by Rachael Donald, who is tops on the team in points (36), kills (25) and digs (49).

Dupo hosted Marissa on Tuesday and plays at Lebanon on Thursday.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Corey Saathoff

Corey is the editor of the Republic-Times. He has worked at the newspaper since 2004, and currently resides in Columbia. He is also the principal singer-songwriter and plays guitar in St. Louis area country-rock band The Trophy Mules.
HTC web
MonroeCountyElectric300X15012_19