River Hill volleyball wins loaded Gator Invitational
By Mike Frainie
Special to The Baltimore Sun
Fifth-ranked River Hill continued its unbeaten season Saturday by defending its tournament title at the second-annual Gator Invitational Volleyball Tournament at Reservoir.
The tournament featured seven teams (Towson, Broadneck, River Hill, St. Paul’s, Mount de Sales, Severna Park, and Reservoir) in The Sun’s top 15. Centennial, Good Counsel, and Northern of Calvert County also participated.
After pool play ended, Reservoir, Centennial, River Hill and St. Paul’s advanced to the semifinals. The Hawks defeated Reservoir, 25-21 and 25-22 to claim a spot in the finals, while St. Paul’s upset last year’s state Class 3A semifinalist Centennial in a three-set thriller, 22-25, 28-26, 16-14 to claim the other spot.
River Hill used its height advantage to take down a scrappy St. Paul’s team, 25-16, 25-22, in the finals.
Hawks coach Lynn Paynter said the tournament, which was rescheduled from early October due to a conflict at Reservoir, happened at just the right time for her team.
“I was disappointed when I heard [about the tournament being rescheduled], but, in retrospect, it worked out great," she said. "We got to play against some of the best teams in the state, and we can use this as a measuring stick to see where we are and what we need to work on. It’s good us to be pushed like this just before the state playoffs.”
River Hill’s Amber Wiswell and Reservoir’s Kelsea Belt were named co-Most Valuable Players of the tournament.
The all-tournament team included St. Paul’s Kabria Haskins, Centennial’s Trisha Mockapetris, Severna Park’s Kimberly Belt, Broadnecks’s Ali Graf, Northern Calvert’s Jess Ward, Towson’s Hannah Wohltmann, Mount de Sales’ Chelsea Owensby, and Good Counsel’s Jen Morrisey.
