Maconaquah Schools

The Lady Braves were in Kokomo Saturday for the nine team Kokomo Invitational. The Ladies in Blue only dropped one set all day to go 4-0 and repeat as tournament champions. The morning session had us defeating Columbia City 25-23, 25-17 and Richmond 25-20, 25-12 to win our pool. After a wonderful lunch supplied by our parents( the best spread of all the teams!), we headed to the main gym for the championship pool. The afternoon's first match would be our toughest match of the day. The Giants from Ben Davis won the first set 25-23. Our girls built up a sizable lead in the second set before Ben Davis made service runs to tie it 23 all. We served out the last two points to tie the match at one set a piece. The third set saw us ahead again building up a lead and Ben Davis clawing back. The girls played smart and with confidence to win the match 23-25, 25-23, 15-12. It was a very competitive and entertaining match. Our final match against DeKalb was played immediately following the Ben Davis match. We gathered ourselves, got a drink, and went back to work. The girls played their typical scrappy style and controlled the match throughout despite DeKalb being a solid team. The final score was Maconaquah 25-18, 25-15 to take the tournament with a 4-0 record. Setter Delaney Betzner who once again was a competitive force, led the Braves with 73 assists, 13 aces, and 35 digs on the day. Ireland Kile had an all around solid day with 32 kills, four blocks, and 30 digs. OH Kasey Murry was strong at the net with 27 kills, dug up 24 balls on defense, and served four aces. Fellow OH Lucee Jernagan had her best day of the season with 23 kills and 10 digs. Libero Naomi Cook was steady all day and led us in serve receptions as well as digging up 30 balls from the back row. Aubrey Kaiser had some clutch serving and served five aces to go with her 22 digs. We had good contributions from MH Eliot Fuller, MH Sara Gil Bonnin, and DS Ida Kiener during the tournament. Freshman Bailei Boggs saw her first varsity action of her career and we had some good energy and enthusiasm from Sophomores Ryleigh Marbuger and Addie Korba as well as Freshman Bristol Yoder. It was a good team effort! We are thrilled to win the tournament but realize we must continue to improve if we are to meet our potential. There are definitely areas we need to improve on and we will get right back to work. The Braves are now 5-1 and host North Miami Thursday.