Trojans, Nordics, Knights finish 1-2-3 at Forest Park Invitational

Forest Park hosted a 12-team invitational volleyball tournament on Saturday and came away with a 5-0 record to claim the championship.

“It was a fun day filled with lots of great volleyball,” said Forest Park coach Bobbie Anderson. “Our girls worked hard from start to finish, getting tons of valuable reps and continuing to grow as a team.”

Forest Park opened pool play with wins over Bessemer (25-6, 25-6), Wakefield (25-3, 25-7) and Stephenson (25-11, 25-15).

The Trojans then battled their way through the semifinals with a win over Norway (25-8, 23-25, 15-3) before finishing the day with a championship win over North Dickinson (25-9, 25-6).

“Proud of the way they competed all day,” Anderson said.

North Dickinson advanced through pool play with a nearly perfect record, defeating Iron Mountain (25-11, 25-17) and Ironwood (25-23, 25-23) while splitting with Norway (23-25, 25-21).

“Throughout the day, we played strong, scrappy defense and remained focused,” said Nordics coach Taylor Johnson. “Against Norway, we played consistently and made key adjustments in the second set to take advantage of areas where Norway was struggling.”

Norway’s path to the semifinals included a win over Wakefield (25-12, 25-8), a tie with Ironwood (21-25, 25-18) and a win over Iron Mountain (25-15, 25-15), along with the North Dickinson tie.

In the semifinals, North Dickinson edged West Iron in a highly competitive three-set match (15-25, 25-19, 15-13).

“It was a hard fought battle and was some of our best play of the year,” Johnson said.

The North Dickinson coach credited Dalaney Steinbrecher for an outstanding defensive performance, recording 80 digs on the day.

“Aunika Lindholm also had a strong tournament, running a varied offense and consistently setting up kills for seven different hitters throughout the day,” Johnson said.

North Dickinson stats:

Carli Jungwirth – 15 kills, 2 assists, 2 aces, 64 digs

Aunika Lindholm – 60 assists, 2 aces, 42 digs

Alle Brown – 1 kill, 2 aces, 1 dig

Aspen Anderson – 9 kills, 1 assist, 5 aces, 31 digs

Kathryn Steinbrecher – 12 kills, 1 ace, 7 blocks, 9 digs

Ella Rossi – 23 kills, 3 aces, 7 blocks, 6 digs

Khloe Roberts – 9 kills, 1 assist, 43 digs

Dalaney Steinbrecher – 6 kills, 5 aces, 80 digs

Isabelle Kleiman – 1 assist, 1 dig

Zoey Mattson – 2 kills