Both boys and girls on volleyball teams from around the county competed in the division II tournaments last week. The boys tournament was held in Fort Fairfield on March 24; and the girls tournament was hosted by Washburn District High School on March 23. The tournaments had large turnouts, both with the number of competing teams and fans attending.
Eleven teams competed in Fort Fairfield on March 24 during the Division II Boys Volleyball Tournament. Due to the large size, two pools had to be created. One pool of five teams (pool A) and one pool of six teams (pool B). Each team had the opportunity to play everyone in their bracket twice.
For pool A, Katahdin was first with 8-0, Washburn and Van Buren tied for second with 5-3, Easton and Limestone were tied for fourth with 1-7. Due to the tie in second, Washburn and Van Buren had a one-game playoff that Washburn was victorious in.
In pool B, Wisdom and Ashland tied for first with 8-2, Fort Fairfield had 7-3, Hodgdon 4-6, Central Aroostook with 2-8, and Greater Houlton Christian Academy had 0-10.
For the semi-finals, the winner from pool A and the second team from pool B were matched up; while the winner of pool B and the second team from pool A played against each other. The playoffs were the best two out of three games.
Katahdin beat Ashland 25-12 and 25-14 and Washburn beat Wisdom 25-19 and 25-12. Katahdin and Washburn went competed in the championship game. After a long day of playing, Katahdin was the victor 25-21 and 25-10. This makes the third year in a row that Katahdin has won the Division II tournament.
An All-Tourney team was chosen again this year. Athletes were nominated by the coaches for recognition at the end of the tournament. The team selected this year included: Ethan DeGraw, Central Aroostook; Justin Belanger, Ashland; Jeremy Brock, Easton; Josh Ramos, Fort Fairfield; Chad Duff, Greater Houlton Christian Academy; Robbie Nesbitt, Hodgdon; Brett Gould, Katahdin; Danny Hayes, Limestone/Maine School of Science and Mathematics; Riley Lizotte, Van Buren; Caio Hollands, Washburn; and the Most Valuable Player was Jared Anderson, from Katahdin.
In Washburn, the girls’ tournament also had 11 teams vying for the title of Division II champion. The teams were split into two pools. Pool A had five teams and pool B had six teams.
The winner of pool A was Fort Fairfield with 7-1, followed by Van Buren with 6-2. In third was Ashland with 4-4; fourth was Hodgdon with 3-5; and Central Aroostook High School took fifth with 1-7.
Washburn District High School and Greater Houlton Christian Academy finished in a tie within pool B, both with 8-2. After a head-to-head tiebreaker, GHCA won first place. Katahdin finished third with a 6-4 record; Wisdom was fourth with 4-6; Limestone, fifth, with 2-8; and Easton in sixth with 1-9.
GHCA went up against Van Buren in the semi-finals. GHCA won 25-17 and 25-9 to advance to the finals. Fort Fairfield defeated Washburn 25-17 and came from behind to win the second game 25-21.
GHCA won the first championship game with a score of 25-18. However, Fort Fairfield came back to win the second game at 27-25. With all of the weight of the best of three riding on the final game, GHCA won it 27-25, bringing home the championship title for this year’s Division II tournament.
An All-Tourney Team was named at the end of the competition. One player from each high school was selected by their coaches to represent their team. Jasmine Cyr was chosen for Katahdin; Julie Peers, Limestone; Taylor Baker, Ashland; Kristen Hebert, Fort Fairfield; Sarah Long, CAHS; Megan Lajoie, Van Buren; Kassie Lovely, Easton; Kayla Daigle, Wisdom; Rachel Palmer, Washburn; and Danielle Begin, from Hodgdon. The Most Valuable Player Award was given to Sarah Riopel of GHCA.
