Sequels seldom live up to the original, but the second annual Rockwood Invitational promises to be bigger and even tougher this season.
Hosted by Lafayette, Eureka and Marquette, the first tournament brought in 23 of the best girls volleyball teams throughout Missouri along with perennial Kansas power St. James Academy. This year, the field has grown to 27 teams with several high-profile additions.
“The schedule is predetermined,” Lafayette coach Zach Young said. “There's no bracket play. Teams could ask for however many matches they wanted to play, and we would, you know, do our best to make sure they didn't play anybody that was in their area or previously on their schedule.”
The tournament gives local teams a rare opportunity to play the top teams from the Springfield and Kansas City areas.
Defending Class 4 champion Incarnate Word is joining the mix as well as Lee’s Summit North from Kansas City. Other notable teams include St. Pius X, Francis Howell, Francis Howell Central, Cor Jesu, Nixa, Kickapoo, Jefferson City, St. Michael the Archangel, Republic, Blue Springs, Blues Springs South, Bolivar, Lee’s Summit West and St. James Academy.
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Young said including St. James in Kansas, that 10 of the tournament’s 27 teams competed in their state tournaments last season.
Eureka coach Jodie Fowler said tournament organizers also make every effort to place teams in groups with similar abilities. She also said several teams requested to play particular schools, which the pool play style allows for.
“The coolest part about that is you get in the first couple weeks of the season, a look at your opponents that are potentially going to be at the state tournament with you, and I think that's super valuable,” Fowler said. “Not only are you going to be playing, you'll have film on them, so you can kind of get ready and prepare. But it's a level playing field. You're not getting film from somebody else. It's your team. How did your team fare against the team earlier?”
The idea for the tournament stemmed from Fowler attending an all-state meeting. She realized she hadn’t seen the majority of the players before voting on them.
So, Fowler put together a smaller scale event with a couple of non-Ƶ teams. Then Young suggested inviting more teams to see if there was an interest in a bigger event. The invitational grew from there.
Bitter rivals on the court, the Rockwood schools — Lafayette, Eureka and Marquette — have come together to host the tournament. Summit, the other school in the Rockwood District, has expressed interest in hosting matches as the tournament continues to grow.
“I think it's unique, because we purposefully set up tournament games where you would never put those people on your schedule,” Fowler said. “That was the whole goal.”
Pool play begins at all three Rockwood schools at 4:30 p.m. Friday. It will continue at 8:30 a.m. Saturday.
“It's good competition, but it also brings along that grit factor,” Young said. “You know, you're probably not going to run through an entire tournament like this without someone having some kind of adversity, without being pushed a little bit, without having other players on your team step up. And those are all good things for your team.”
Red Knights hit milestones with fast start
It’s hard to make a statement when you are the defending state champion, but Incarnate Word may have done just that in the first two weeks of the season.
Playing with a new setter and without standout middle hitter Tara Greenberry, the Red Knights went 4-2 in the Nike Tournament of Champions in Florida.
“They've really come together is the bottom line,” Incarnate coach Shane Weber said. “I mean, our defense is extremely solid, which I was hoping it would be, which I expected. I am really proud of our sophomore setter, Lexi Schmid, she's been doing a great job.”
The Red Knights finished second in the highest division, falling to DeLand Fla. in a close 19-25, 27-25, 14-16 match. Weber said Incarnate was inches away from winning on a pair of Ellie Witthaus swings but was turned away by the outstanding play of DeLand’s libero.
“The girls were very upset,” Weber said. “Ellie was upset that she did not finish on those two swings to win. But we earned the opportunity to be in that moment. And if we can earn that opportunity to be in those moments, we're going to have more chances to be successful in those moments. That was our goal.”
Schmid is averaging 10.53 assists running the Red Knights’ offense.
“She is doing a great job handling those pressure moments, because it's not easy out there,” Weber said.
Incarnate, No. 1 in the small school rankings, came back from Florida and posted wins against Francis Howell, Westminster and Jackson.
Witthaus recorded career kill No. 1,000 against Howell and Allie Fuchs put up career dig No. 1,000 against Westminster. Weber said that Fuchs was the quickest to 1,000 digs in the program since at least 2003.
“She definitely runs the back row,” Weber said. “She's extremely vocal. She's consistently communicating with our attackers on what’s open, you know, and she runs the court.”
The tough schedule continues as Incarnate will play in the Rockwood Invitational this weekend.
Weber said playing such good competition is always a goal, but it takes on an even greater importance this season as the defending Class 4 champions have been moved up to Class 5 by the Missouri State High School Activities Association this season.
“What you see is you see less errors,” Weber said. “You see a team at that level, like a Lafayette, Eureka, and those teams, a Howell or St. Dominic, they terminate the ball a lot quicker.”
Emotional Eagles soar
Under the circumstances, it would be perfectly natural to give the Columbia volleyball team a pass last weekend. Aside from dealing with a tough field in the Edwardsville Tournament, the players were grieving the sudden loss of a classmate and friend from a car accident.
But taking a pass isn’t in Columbia’s DNA.
“We talked about that we need to use this as a distraction,” Columbia coach Kelly Landgraf said. “We need to make sure that we understand that it's OK not to be OK. I can't stress that enough.”
On the court at least, Columbia was more than OK.
The Eagles went 5-0 to take the tournament championship, capped with an impressive sweep of Breese Central in the final. On the way, No. 5 small school Columbia (11-2) swept Bloomington and prevailed in three sets against Nashville, O’Fallon and Lincoln-Way West.
“It just seems like the team, like they refused to lose,” Landgraf said. “When we go three and they know that that's on the line, I just feel like they step up huge.”
Claire Sandstrom led the offensive charge and was named the tournament MVP. Kinley Janey played a strong all-around game and was especially tough from the serving line and Maura Kohlenberger was named to the all-tournament team.
The trio led a true team effort.
“Every player had ups and downs this weekend, but every single player shined in a different game, like it was amazing,” Landgraf said. “Everyone stepped up. Everyone was just really solid.”
More than anything, the team showed Landgraf that it had the grit to get through adversity, which should serve the players well on and off the court moving forward. That grit will be vital as the girls continue to work through the grieving process.
“They really made it a point to check on each other, and they really made it a point to understand adult situations as 15-, 16-, and 17-year-olds that you know it's OK to grieve, and everyone grieves differently. … We are going to get through this. We have to start picking up pieces of the puzzle and figuring out, like, what the new norm for these young girls look like.”