HS volleyball: Carlinville wins first county title since 2015
The Carlinville High School volleyball team won its first Macoupin County Tournament title since 2015 last weekend at Bunker Hill. The Cavaliers knocked off six-time defending champion Staunton in the final and ended a 10-game losing streak against the Bulldogs. Photo contributed.
By JACKSON WILSON
Enquirer Democrat Reporter
The Carlinville High School volleyball team had achieved many accomplishments throughout Kaitie Hammann’s coaching tenure. However, one of the unchecked boxes was “win the Macoupin County Tournament.”
With a huge surplus of talent and experience at every position for 2024, the Cavaliers had a gut feeling that this would be the year to finally take down Staunton, which had owned the county title for the past six years. Carlinville did just that and broke into a victory song and dance, celebrating a championship victory that was nine years in the making at Bunker Hill Oct. 12.
In addition to claiming their program’s first county title since 2015, the Cavaliers ended a 10-game losing streak against the high-powered Bulldogs and improved to 22-4 overall with a exhilarating 25-17, 25-18 straight set, setting the stage for what is expected to be a intensified rematch for the South Central Conference title in Carlinville Oct. 24. The Cavaliers and Bulldogs are the current frontrunners with 5-0 league records. Staunton is 20-5 overall.
Carlinville powered through pool play with 25-19, 25-10 and 25-14, 25-16 victories over North Mac and Gillespie.
Staunton swept Bunker Hill, Mt. Olive and Southwestern in the opposing pool.
Southwestern (9-16 overall) won three out of four matches en route to a third place finish over Gillespie, 25-15, 25-21. The Birds opened the tournament with wins over Mt. Olive and Bunker Hill prior to being denied a championship berth by Staunton.
Gillespie (7-18 overall), qualified for the third place match with victories over North Mac and Mt. Olive following a loss to Carlinville in the opening match.
Mt. Olive (8-19 overall) defeated North Mac (8-15 overall) 25-23, 25-15 for fifth place.
Seventh place finisher Bunker Hill fell to 4-17 on the season with a tough 19-25, 25-23, 13-15 loss to Mt. Olive in the knockout round.
Isabella Tiburzi (Carlinville), Hannah Gibson (Carlinville), Ele Feldmann (Staunton), Lilly Bandy (Staunton), Gracie Darr (Southwestern), Vivian Zurheide (Southwestern) and Amari Vickery (Gillespie) were named to the All-Tournament team.
