Hosting their annual Apollo Summer Slamdown volleyball tournament over the weekend, the E-Gals won the Silver Division. Owensboro and Trinity advanced to the Gold Division after sweeping their respective groupings in pool play, while McLean and Daviess County both advanced to the Copper Division.
The Lady Raiders won their opening match of the Gold Division over Evansville Christian before falling to Greenwood in the semifinals. They then dropped the third-place match to Clarksville, finishing fourth overall.
Senior Caroline Hall finished with a team-high 106 kills across their six matches, while senior Kenzie McDowell led the Lady Raiders in kills and assists with 32 and 87, respectively.
Trinity head Coach Brooke Hall was thrilled with the way her team held their own.
“I am extremely proud of them,” Hall said. “I can tell you I feel like they are constantly the underdog. They surprise people. Coming from a school that has around 100 students, they continuously produce. They do exactly what is asked and expected of them.”
Despite having multiple opportunities in their matches, the Lady Devils were unable to capitalize and finished eighth in the Gold Division.
Addie Travis led the team in kills, digs, and blocks with 46, 39, and 15, respectively. Anna Travis finished with a team-high 69 assists.
“We obviously knew we were going to play some difficult competition,” Owensboro head coach Melissa Hibbs said. “We played right there with them for a while, but we didn’t execute the way we needed to play. We knew we had some young girls coming in, some girls coming back from injuries. We’re not 100% where we want to be because of that, and we knew that was going to happen. Leaving here, I think it motivates us more because we know we can play with that tough competition, and we’re going to learn from what we saw today, go to practice, and get ready for this week.”
Apollo dropped their opening match of pool play Friday evening before regrouping to win their next two. The E-Gals then ran through bracket play and won the title match over Thomas Nelson (25-19, 25-8). Across the two sets, Abbie Butterworth and Avery Gray led the team with seven kills each, while Jessie Pate recorded nine digs.
“I feel great,” Apollo head coach Mary Howard said. “This tournament, each division is super competitive. I thought we got a good rhythm as the day went along. The offense really started to connect. Each match we played today I think we got better.”
Both McLean County and Daviess County advanced to the Copper division. The Lady Panthers won their opening match against Allen County before losing in the semis to Russell. They bounced back in the third-place match to beat Madisonville North Hopkins 2-0.
The Lady Cougars finished eighth.
“We played a lot of competitive teams and with our core group of girls being sophomores, it makes it difficult,” McLean County head coach Trai Capps said. “They played hard and gave it their best effort.”
