Special to the Westine Report
As the Union Grove Christian School volleyball team left their parking lot last Saturday morning for the Indian Trails Conference Tournament, the Cougars had no idea they would return as tournament champions.
The tournament included 10 teams from the Indian Trails Conference. The Cougars (19-5) began the day with pool play. Their 5-team pool included Maranatha Baptist Academy, Eastbrook Academy, Grace Christian School, and St. Anthony’s of Milwaukee.
The Cougars came out of pool play 6-2. Both losses came at the hands of Maranatha Baptist Academy, which had beaten the Cougars on two previous occasions.
The Cougars were seeded second in their pool, so the bracket play began with the Cougars taking on the home team, Faith Christian of Williams Bay, who were seeded first in their pool.
The Cougars got off to a quick start with aggressive serving and were able to defeat Faith Christian in straight sets.
Maranatha Baptist Academy was able to win its first bracket match versus Rock County Christian School.
So Maranatha and Union Grove Christian were headed to the championship match. The Cougars, riding on the tails of a great win against Faith, continued with strong serving led by Mariah Niemyjski and Abigail Jones.
They were able to pull out a close win in the first set, 27-25. Maranatha fought back to take the second set 25-21 in spite of an injury to one of their starting setters.
The third set was hardfought by both teams. The Cougars made some headway in the third set with continued strong serving. Freshmen Trisha Wright also made great contributions to the Cougars’ front row attack and block defense. The Cougars won the final set, 15-11.
Robin Jones, coach of the Cougars, was especially proud of her team in this tournament.
“We have a very young team this year with only one starting senior,” she said. “We start two freshmen, and have an eighth grader that plays a significant role in our rotation as well. MBA is a much larger school than ours—they are much taller and more experienced than we are. Our girls played beyond their years. We have to play smart, because we cannot hope to overpower them,” stated Jones.
The Cougars head to the WACS State Tournament this weekend, Oct. 25-26, at Menomonee Falls, where they are seeded third.
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