Trojans win home volleyball invite

Mon, Sep 22, 2008    to del.icio.us

Fruitport may have felt a tad slighted by only being listed as an honorable mention in the first Class B volleyball poll last week.

The Trojans set out to prove they deserved to be higher, defeating a handful of state-ranked teams at their home tournament Saturday, the Millennium Invitational, on their way to taking home first-place honors.

Fruitport accomplished the goal not without a thrill or two along the way. They defeated Gull Lake, a squad ranked No. 10 in Class B, in a extremely close three-game match, 25-17, 16-25, 15-13.

On its way to the finals, Fruitport dispatched of two more ranked squads, first by avenging an early pool play loss to No. 4-ranked Holland Christian, 23-25, 25-14,15-12; and then fighting back to stun No. 2-ranked Lake Odessa Lakewood, 21-25, 25-23, 15-10.

In pool play, the Trojans defeated East Grand Rapids (25-15, 25-15), and Alma (25-14, 25-15), then fell to Holland Christian, 25-23, 25-13.

Fruitport's attack was boosted by the return to the lineup of Naomi Bush, who came back from a suspension. She led the Trojans with an impressive 79 kills on 143 attacks. Fellow senior Tiffany Brufladt added 35 kills.

Bush also led the team with 54 digs, while Brufladt tallied a solid 11 blocks.

Fruitport had a trio of strong servers, including Lauren Hazekamp's 60 points and 10 aces, Julie Larson's 45 points and five aces, and Ashley Hulbert's 42 points and nine aces.

Hazekamp totaled 115 assists throughout the day, splitting duties with Larson, who added 88.

The Trojans play at rival Spring Lake Tuesday.

Grand Haven struggled throughout the day. In pool play, the Bucs split with Fremont (25-21, 29-31) and Lakewood (9-25, 28-26), then lost to Gull Lake (25-20, 27-25) before beating Whitehall (25-14, 25-21).

Grand Haven edged Whitehall in bracket play (25-21, 25-22) before falling to Lakewood in the quarterfinals (22-25, 26-28, 15-8).

"We've got to make sure we take care of our side of the net," said coach Aaron Smaka. "Two of our game losses were by two points, so we had an opportunity to win each of those games.

"I felt like early in the day, we were distracted."

Mindy Marx finished with 44 kills and 22 blocks, while Stacy Kalsbeek had a solid all-around day with 34 kills, 33 digs, six blocks, 10 aces and 67 assists.

Lauren Stolarz did a nice job running the offense, finishing with 41 assists, while Bri Soule had 23 kills and five blocks.

Robyn Power had 56 digs and was credited for passing very well, while Kristen Reenders, up from the junior varsity squad, had 34 digs.

Grand Haven plays at state-ranked Rockford Thursday in a key O-K Red battle.