Girard takes second in Wichita

This time around, against bigger teams, the No. 5-ranked Girard Trojans seemed to have little problem containing hitters.

Last weekend at Carl Junction, the Trojans went 3-3 and struggled to get out of pool play. However, on Saturday, the Trojans went 5-1 and finished second at the Wichita Heights Invitational.

“I am most pleased about the weekend because I saw some individual players get better from the beginning to the end of the day,” said Girard head coach Dale Coomes. “I think it was almost a maturing process when you are up against a big, hard-hitting team.”

Haley Brown and Carly Twarog picked apart Wichita South in the first game of the round-robin tournament as each accounted for six kills to lead Girard to a 2-0 (25-15, 25-12) win.

Danielle Geier and Carly Lallemand racked up seven assists each and libero Ariel Vinze had seven digs and two aces in the win.

Then, Girard defeated the Aces of Wichita East 2-0 (25-20, 25-14) as Twarog led the Trojans with eight kills.

Brown and Morgan Boore each had four kills and Geier picked up 10 assists to go along with her seven digs. Lallemand added nine assists.

Against Wichita North, Brown had a big game for the Trojans, getting six kills as Boore and Kylie Kunshek each had five kills in Girard’s 2-0 (25-20, 25-13) win.

Lallemand had 10 assists and Geier added another nine as Vinze collected 15 digs and Andi Umbarger had three blocks.

That led the Trojans against Class 2A power Inman where the Trojans won 2-1 (18-25, 25-12, 25-22).

Brown and Twarog each had nine kills while Boore added five.

Geier led the Trojans with 13 assists and 10 digs while Lallemand had 12 assists and four digs. On the defensive side, Vinze also had 11 digs in the win.

“Wichita North was a good match and they challenged us,” Coomes said. “Inman is a perennial 2A power.”

The Trojans got their first, and only, loss of the tournament against Wichita Heights 2-0 (17-25, 22-25).

“We were just intimidated and that is what it amounts to,” Coomes said.

Brown led the Trojans with five kills while Vinze and Twarog each had eight digs. Freshman Kenzie Dunlap did pick up three aces and Lallemand had six assists along with five digs. Geier added another four assists and three digs for Girard.

“In the second game against Heights, we found our rhythm and the girls lost that intimidation,” Coomes said. “We were able to go back and forth with them until Heights was able to pull it out and beat us.

“We really picked up our play in that second game and played like we could win.”
Finally, Girard knocked off Wichita West 2-0 (25-9, 25-15).

Twarog closed out the Pioneers with seven kills and Kunshek added five.

Cassie Curran had 10 assists and Vinze picked up five digs and two aces in the win over West.
Coomes said that it was the play of Brown that helped spark the Trojans in Wichita.

“We have been waiting on that one,” Coomes said. “She did well but she did have some rough spots but, overall, she was a key to our success over the weekend.

“We talked about the need for our left-side hitters to be successful for us to be good and Carly (Twarog) and Haley (Brown) really stepped up to that role this weekend.”

He said that this tournament will provide a good jumping-off point for the Trojans as they re-enter Crawford-Neosho-Cherokee League play tonight at Erie against the Red Devils and Baxter Springs.

“We had some really fine front-line play out of our middles,” Coomes said. “Andi (Umbarger) and Kylie (Kunshek) found out just how hard they had to work against big, physical team.”

Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140.