October 30, 2023
- Marshal Manlove
- Oct 30, 2023
- 5 min read
Top Bracket
Thursday
The Seahawks of Sussex Academy are the Henlopen Southern Conference Champions coached by Hailey Gooch. Their losses this year were all to teams seeded higher than them in the tournament.
Their setter is Grace Fiorilla, a Senior, and their main offensive weapon is Danica Duncan, the schools all-time leader in kills.
Grace Fiorilla
The Quakers of Wilmington Friends had a rough last two matches of the regular season to end up 9-5. Two of their losses were to in-conference rival, and defending State Champion, Tower Hill. They had one win against a higher seed in this event, a 3-1 win against #11 Concord, the Blue Hen Flight B Champions. Their setter is Freshman Pamela Moore and their leading hitter is Eleanor Dealy. The winner of this match will take on the #1 seed, St. Marks.
Pamela Moore
Eleanor Dealy
Wednesday
The Golden Knights are led by Takyla Davis in the upper right hand corner of the picture. #1 Ava Albano and #13 Lillette Hastings will both do the setting for Head Coach Mike Adams.
The Jaguars are led by Senior Alexis Parkinson, their setter. On the outside she will find Sophomore Jaslyn Dawkins. The Jags Libero, Aimee Abad, is a Junior and one of the best in the state.
Both teams had Caesar Rodney on their schedules as the only common opponent. Both teams lost to the Riders but Appoquinimink did take a set in their match. The winner will advance to play the #4 seed, Ursuline Academy.
Alexis Parkinson
Jaslyn Dawkins
Aimee Abad
Thursday
The Warriors of Sanford squeezed in to the final tournament slot just in time to face the defending State Champions, the Hillers of Tower Hill who beat them twice in straight sets during the regular season. The matches against the Hillers, because of Tower Hill's season record, earned the bonus points which put them back on the court against them on Thursday. Senior, and lefty, Caroline Boyle is a member of the 1000-kill club for her career with the Warriors. Sophomore setter Lilliana Cooper will try to see if she can add to Boyle's career numbers.
Lillian Cooper
The defending State Champion Tower Hill is led by co-captain Molly Pietlock. She is one of the Hillers two setters and she also is one of the leaders on the team in kills. Anna Schiltz is the other setter on the team. Co-captain Meghan Mumford is another one of the top Libero's in the state. Junior Lydia Spencer will also be the recipient of passes from Pietlock and Schiltz to score points for a run at another state title. The Hillers only loss of the year was to #4 seeded Ursuline way back in match number 2 for them this year. The winner of this match will advance to play #8, Middletown.
Anna Schiltz
Wednesday
The Seahawks of Delaware Military Academy won their last 4 matches of the season including a must-win match against the Middletown Cavaliers, who were 13-1 at the time, on the last night of the regular season. Middletown happens to be one of the common opponents where these two teams had different results. Senior OH Carly Opalach will take the majority of swings for the #21 seed. She will get feeds from St. Marks transfer, and Junior, Keira Benoit and Sophomore Maria Workman. Junior Kate Hines is a top defender as the Libero for the team.
Keira Benoit
Carly Opalach
Kate Hines & Maria Workman
The Hawks have a very gifted setter in Junior Shayla Howell. As she flies, so will the Hawks. Her main target will be Kayla Riley, who is a sophomore. Amiya Mills, a Senior, will also get a chance to swing for some points. The winner of this match will face #5, Padua.
Shayla Howell
Kayla Riley
Amiya Mills
Bottom Bracket
Thursday #18 Delmarva Christian (8-7) vs #15 Cape Henlopen (9-6) These two teams met on the first day of the season in a match which Delmarva Christian won in 5 sets. After that, the Royals, who were third in the state last year, battled through a tough schedule where 6 of their 7 losses were to higher seeds in this event. Junior Elaina Millaway is one of the top beach volleyball players in the nation. She recently had a 36-kill effort in a win against Caravel. The Royals will use two setters to find her, Senior Maggie Kwaitkowski, who will also take some swings, and Khushi Patel, a Junior.
Elaina Millaway
Maggie Kwiatkowski
Khushi Patel
With the exception of the Delmarva Christian match, Cape Henlopen's losses were all to higher seeded teams in the tournament. Emerson Smith, the Vikings setter, spreads out the love pretty equally to the hitters on offense. A couple of names and faces of players who will score some points are Junior Ava Calciano and Sophomore Amalia Fruchtman. Calciano and Sophomore Emily Cook are the team's top defenders. The winner of this match will face #2 Smyrna.
Emerson Smith
Ava Calciano
Amalia Fruchtman
Emily Cook
Wednesday
The tenth seeded Senators of Dover will host #23 Conrad. They had a tough schedule this year with only 4 of their matches against teams not in this tournament. Their losses were to the #2, #3, and #6 teams. Jasmine Hallum is a Sophomore and Dover's fantastic setter. She has 4 offensive targets with two of them being the twin Senior sister towers Malya and Mila Milstead. Senior Elizabeth Baughman is the teams leading hitter and defender and Emma Kozel will score as well.
Jasmine Hallum
Elizabeth Baughman
Mila & Malya Milstead
Emma Kozel
Key wins against Concord and Appoquinimink helped propel the Red Wolves into the tournament. Winning their last 4 matches of the year certainly helped as well. Riley Greenley runs the offense for Conrad. She will primarily feed Senior Dylan Gregor and Sophomore Emily Hartnett. Both teams only had one common opponent, Wilmington Charter, both matches were 3-0 losses. The winner of this contest gets to play #7 Newark Charter, who Conrad played earlier in the year and lost.
Dylan Gregor
Thursday
Both Caravel and Archmere had strong schedules this year, both playing 5 of the top 8 seeds in the event. Plus they played each other with Archmere taking a 3-0 match victory. Archmere beat Padua earlier in the year which was the opposite result of Caravel's match against the Pandas.
The Buccaneers are young. Sophomore Katie Greenplate is their leading hitter. She will look to get assists from Junior Lillian O'Brien and Senior Savannah Crouse.
Savannah Crouse
Lillian O'Brien
Katie Greenplate
The 14th seeded Auks are led by Senior setter Ella Strohmaier. Her two main targets are Ceci Connolly and Katie Kuehl. They had big wins against Padua and Ursuline this year along with the victory against Caravel. The winner of this match gets #3 Caesar Rodney, a team neither of these two teams played this year.
Ella Strohmaier
Ceci Connolly
Katie Kuehl
Wednesday
The Flight B Champion Concord Raiders will host the #22 seeded Indian River Indians. The 12-3 Raiders had two wins against tournament teams this year, against Sanford and St. Georges. They are led on offense by Senior setter Sydney Donatello who had a 46 assist match against Dickinson where the Raiders clinched the Flight B title. Kathryn Hart and Maeve Teaney are the main hitters for the Raiders. On defense, Gia Rivera is the talented Senior Libero who recently celebrated 650 career digs.
Sydney Donatello
Kathryn Hart
Maeve Teaney
Gia Rivera
Indian River won their last 5 matches including a final season contest against Lake Forest which both teams needed to win for a tournament berth. They are paced by three Juniors, Gracie Hoban and Leilani Ehlers, who are hitters, and their setter Anna Wiest. All 7 of the Indians losses were to tournament teams so their schedule was tough all year long. The winner of this contest will play #6, Wilmington Charter in the second round.
Anna Wiest
Leilani Ehlers
Gracie Hoban
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