Red Wolves make statement with RadioTroy.com Invite title (with VIDEO)
Red Wolves make statement with RadioTroy.com Invite title (with VIDEO)
RICHMOND, Ind. - Statement made.
The Indiana University East volleyball team completed a perfect run through the inaugural RadioTroy.com Invitational with a pair of wins Aug. 18 at the Richmond High School Tiernan Center.
The 25th-ranked Red Wolves defeated Indiana University Southeast 25-18, 25-10, 25-13 in the morning match.
IU East topped Bethel College 25-16, 26-24, 25-21 in the final match, which determined the team champion of the round-robin tournament.
Red Wolves senior libero Kristin Waechter (Muncie, Ind./Daleville, Ind.) and junior outside hitter Sarah Shilling (Warsaw, Ind./Warsaw Community High School) were named to the 10-player all-tournament team.
The Red Wolves took the court with the letters "STMNT" written on their wrists. The meaning?
"Today we wanted to make a statement to the conference, and we did really well," Shilling said. "We came out strong against IU Southeast and carried that same intensity into the Bethel match."
Shilling led IU East with 24 kills on the day. None were bigger than her back-to-back kills in Game 2 against Bethel to erase a set point for the Pilots and shift the momentum back to the Red Wolves.
Shilling also put away a kill on the tournament-clinching Parallax Systems Match Point against Bethel.
"We hit well when we had to and we played great defense when we had to," said IU East coach Charlie Brown. "The difference is we want to do those things all of the time."
IU East won its season-opening tournament for the fourth consecutive year. The Red Wolves are now 30-1 in August since the start of the 2009 season.
"We always come out strong," Shilling said. "We've had two-a-days all month, and those first couple of matches against someone else are always fun."
IU East gets a rematch with Bethel on Aug. 24 in the first match of the two-day University of Michigan-Dearborn Earlybird Collegiate Challenge.
The Red Wolves also will play Lourdes College, the University of Northwestern Ohio and Spring Arbor University during the UMD tournament.
IU East-IU Southeast box score (non-conference match)
IU East-Bethel box score
RADIOTROY.COM INVITATIONAL STANDINGS
IU East 4-0
Bethel 3-1
IU Southeast 2-2
St. Catharine 1-3
Huntington 0-4
RADIOTROY.COM INVITATIONAL ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Sarah Shilling, IU East
Kristin Waechter, IU East
Alicia Carlton, Bethel
Amanda Troyer, Bethel
Jade Troutman, IU Southeast
Stephanie Bradshaw, IU Southeast
Mel Grossman, Huntington
Abbey Keister, Huntington
Watch the championship match between IU East and Bethel: