skip navigation

Keystone Juniors 14 Black @ MLK

By W. Keir , 01/26/20, 12:45PM EST

Share

Keystone Juniors 14 Black opened the 2020 Campaign striking GOLD as they won the Silver Division at last weekend's MLK Kickoff Classic.  14 Black finished the 3 day tournament with a record of 6-3. On Saturday, they opened up the weekend with a 3-1 record including a victory in their challenge crossover match against ECP Freeze.  14 Black had a record of 3-1 in 3 set matches but unfortunately that 1 loss was against eventual Gold Bracket Champion ECP Ocean as they lost the 3rd set by a score of 15-13.  Our Keystone Juniors were the only team this weekend to win a set against ECP Ocean.  And you could see the confidence in their eyes growing stronger each set as they never lost another match after that fantastic matchup.

  On playoff Monday, they faced AVVC 14 Red and opened up set 1 with a 25-21 victory.  Set 2 was more of a struggle as they found themselves down by a score of 14-4 and already out of timeouts.  But thats when Keystone relied on their stong serving to mount their comeback.  Setters Annie Corcoran (8 aces, 17 assists), Jazzy Sullivan (7 aces) and DS Aislin Oneill (6 aces, 7 digs) paced our Juniors to a fierce comeback and a 25-22 victory helping them advance to the Silver Division championship to face off against NVA Black on their homecourt of Spooky Nook!

  The Championship match went back and forth winning set 1, 25-23 and losing set 2, 27-25.  Strong defense by Sam Orlando (6 digs), Aislin Oneill (7 digs) and Libero Julia (JuJu) Riley (19 digs) were all key for Keystone's hitters to get quality attacks.  Jazzy Sullivan (S/OH) led all hitters on the day with 12 kills and Molly Mishinkash added 9 as well.  But set 3 was advantage Keystone and that set was led by our strong play at the net!  Middle Hitters Caroline Kirsch (10 Kills, 4 Blocks) and Ciara Julien (5 Kills, 3 Blocks) started their domination.  And then went Nook set to their outside hitters, our RS blockers Giana Costello (3 Kills, 1 block) and Megan Gowman (1 block and 1 kill) shut them down too!  Keystone Juniors won Set 3 by the score of 15-8 and were awarded their 1st Gold Medal of the season!  Congratulations Girls!