KALAMAZOO – For the second consecutive year, the Niles volleyball team captured the Kalamazoo Loy Norrix Invitational Saturday.

The Vikings defeated Kalamazoo Central in the championship match 25-19 and 25-20.

In Pool play, Niles defeated Galesburg-Augusta (25-17, 25-22), Coloma (25-16, 25-11), beat Kalamazoo Central (25-21, 25-21) and split with Brandywine (25-13, 23-25).

Niles (13-1-3) was the No. 1 seed heading into single elimination play where it defeated Bangor 25-8 and 25-9 in the quarterfinals and then Galesburg-Augusta 25-10 and 25-19 in the semifinals.

“My team played amazing today,” Niles coach Jenny Nate said. “My setter Kelsey Barton deserves a lot of credit. She is a great leader, is versatile and her assists are the reason various hitters on this team are consistently in double digits on their kills. She is also one of our top servers every match, can hit, block and cover the court defensively.

“We were missing our starting outside hitter today, and so my two defensive specialists – Olivia Jordan and Courtney Nixon – stepped up the plate and did a phenomenal job taking turns hitting outside and playing all the way around to make up for the absence. As always, Miranda Baker, Kierra Fillwock, Jazmin Brann and Megan Kohler did a stellar job hitting, blocking and playing the net. My libero, Maggie Hoff, is critical to our success and took charge on defense, along with many others and all of those consistent passes and digs enabled us to run our offense. Junior Meagan Kelley also came off the bench today and gave great effort at several positions. This was a total team win.”

 

Niles statistics

Points/Aces

Kelsey Barton 57 points, 17 aces

Kierra Fillwock 36 points, 2 aces

Olivia Jordan 32 points, 3 aces

Maggie Hoff 32 points, 3 aces

Miranda Baker 27 points, 2 aces

Courtney Nixon 24 points, 4 aces

 

Assists

Barton 120

 

Kills

Baker 43

Fillwock 21

Jazmin Brann 15

Barton 14

Megan Kohler 10

Jordan 10

Nixon 8

 

Blocks

Baker 27

Brann 16

Barton 15

Kohler 6

Fillwock 4

Jordan 4

Nixon 3

 

Digs

Hoff 51

Baker 42

Nixon 42

Jordan 39

Fillwock 33

Barton 26

 

Varsity record: Niles 13-1-3