​On Saturday, Sept. 20, the junior high Lady Blackhawks competed in the junior high volleyball tournament in Wessington Springs. There are enough girls on the junior high team that the seventh graders and the eighth graders could be split into two teams divided by grade level.

​ The seventh-grade team played in one bracket in the main gym. Their first game was against the Miller eighth-grade girls and ended in a loss for the SCW girls; set scores were 19-25 and 22-25. Their second-round game was against the Mt. Vernon/Plankinton (MVP) eighth graders, and although this match went to three sets, it also ended in a tough loss for the SCW seventh graders; set scores were 8-25, 25-22 and 8-15. Their final round took them into the seventh-place match, where they battled the Miller seventh graders and won 25-19 and 25-15 to earn seventh place for the day.

​ The SCW eighth-grade girls were in a separate bracket that started in the auxiliary gym until they earned their place in the championship game to be played in the main gym. Their first game was against the Miller seventh-grade team, which the SCW ladies handled easily with set scores of 25-8 and 25-13 for the win. The second round of play had the SCW eighth-grade team playing the MVP seventh graders, and the Lady Blackhawks earned another victory with scores of 25-20 and 27-25, which advanced them to the championship game against Miller’s eighth graders. The Lady Blackhawks’ eighth-grade girls earned first place in the tournament with set scores of 25-14 and 25-19 to bring home the championship plaque.

The championship was definitely a team effort as Kinlee Viktora is dealing with a sore shoulder, so seventh grader Savana Larson had to serve for her when her own team wasn’t playing, and Larson did a great job. In addition, during the final game, Addy Kilcoin, the team’s setter, twisted her ankle badly and couldn’t finish the game, so seventh grader Emrie VonEye stepped in to takeover and played to the end for the win.

The SCW junior high Lady Blackhawks also played in Wessington Springs on Tuesday, Sept. 16 where the seventh-grade girls won with set scores of 25-16 and 25-12, and the eighth graders also won with scores of 25-19, 20-25 and 15-12.

The junior high Lady Blackhawks played on Tuesday, Sept. 23, against the Wolsey-Wessington ladies in Forestburg, and their next game will be against Highmore-Harrold in Woonsocket on Tuesday, Sept. 30.

…See a picture in this week’s issue of the Sanborn Weekly Journal!