Cardinals claim tournament championship

It’s the right time of the season to be on a roll and the Garner-Hayfield/Ventura volleyball team is right where they want to be heading into post season.  The Cardinals topped Rockford and won their own tournament last week.

GHV 3, Rockford 0

The Cardinals had an easy time with Rockford on Tuesday, Oct. 15, handing them three losses, 25-15, 25-12 and 25-10.

“Rockford put up a solid block, which provided our hitters with excellent opportunities to cut and tip aggressively,” said Coach Kelsey Steffens.  “Our goal is to keep fine tuning our game as we head into tournament play.”

Leading the team at the net was Hannah Lau and Emily Mathews.  Lau collected 12 hits, while Mathews had eight.  Mackenzie Van Gerpen and Shelby Rayhons had four kills apiece.

Leading the defense was Mathews with nine digs.  Rayhons and Emily Spilman had five digs apiece and Mallory Van Oort and Miranda Frederick had three digs each.

Courtney Younge led the team in two categories.  She had 21 assists and led the team at the service line with 14 points and one ace serve.

Other serving leaders included Van Oort with 13 points. Mathews collected seven points and two aces and Rayhons had six points and one ace.  Spilman and Frederick had five and four points respectively.

Garner Tournament

Saturday was an exciting day for the Cardinals, as they won their home tournament, finishing the day with a 10-1 record.

GHV opened the day by defeating Central Springs with scores of 21-8 and 23-21.

Newman was next on the GHV docket.  The Cardinals walked all over the Knights in the first game, 21-3, and defeated them in the second game, 21-13.

GHV came out strong against Northwood-Kensett, defeating them in the first game, 21-12.  The Vikings provided the Cardinals with their lone loss in the second game, 21-12.  The Cards rallied in the third to capture the win, 15-6.

GHV met West Fork in the semi-finals and defeated them 21-14 and 21-15 to head to the championship game to face Central Springs again.

The Championship game wasn’t a very hard battle for the Cardinals.  They topped the Panthers, 21-11 and 21-15, to bring home the top honors.

“This past week of practice we have been working on being aggressive on out-of-system balls,” said Coach Kelsey Steffens.  “It paid off and I am very proud of the girls and their win at the home tournament.”

Team leaders for the tournament included:  Emily Mathews with 38 kills, 20 digs, four blocks and six ace serves; Courtney Younge contributed 77 assists, 14 digs and seven ace serves; Shelby Rayhons had 13 kills and 13 digs; Hannah Lau had 25 kills, while Emily Spilman had 10 digs and Mallory Van Oort and Miranda Frederick had eight digs each.

The Cardinals host Clear Lake on Monday, Oct. 28 for the first round of Class 3A Regional volleyball action.  Game time is 7 p.m.  The winner of that match-up will play at Garner on Thursday, Oct. 31, against the winner of the Forest City vs. Central Springs game.