WATERFORD, Pa. – Warren volleyball kicked off its 2019 season in style on Saturday, taking second place at the Fort LeBoeuf Tournament.

This year’s team features several key returners from last season’s District 10 championship group and PIAA runner-up, as well a number of players who excelled in their first extensive action at the varsity level.

The tournament featured some of the best teams in western Pennsylvania, including Altoona, Cochranton, Maplewood, Corry, and Meadville among a group of 16.

In the morning pool, Warren went 3-0, defeating Cochranton 25-24, Altoona 25-17, and Union City 25-19. That earned them a berth in the “A” pool for the afternoon. There they went 1-5, losing to Corry 17-25, 14-25 and Maplewood 17-25, 16-25. They then split with the eventual overall top seed Meadville 20-25, 25-21.

As the fourth seed heading into the playoffs, they faced off in the quarterfinals with Union City (who had upset 5th seed Hickory) and won by a score of 25-13. In the semifinals they came back to defeat Harbor Creek 11-25, 25-21, 15-12. The other semifinal saw Corry defeat host Fort LeBouef 24-26, 25-12, 15-7. The Dragons then lost the championship match by scores of 15-25, 22-25.

“We got to play against some of the best competition in District 10, and hopefully learned some things about ourselves and what we need to work on going forward,” said Warren coach Mike Dolan. “At the same time, we won some big games and played very well at times as lots of different players stepped up and excelled.”

Leading the Dragons were Carly Beers (3 kills), Meredith Morrison (2 assists, 3 aces, 8 digs), Olivia English (19 kills, 6 aces, 8 digs, 7 blocks), Lex Nyquist (9 kills, 103 assists, 3 aces, 42 digs, 2 blocks), Jordan Sitler (34 kills, 2 aces,4 digs 2 blocks), Hannah Shattuck (12 kills, 1 assist, 4 aces, 15 digs, 1 block), Ailsa Boger (1 kill, 1 dig), Katie Madigan (1 kill, 11 assists, 67 digs), Grace Wortman (25 kills, 3 assists, 3 aces, 23 digs), Ellee Irwin (1 dig, 1 ace), Halee Mineweaser (15 kills, 1 assist, 4 aces, 12 digs, 5 blocks) and Jayna Baldensperger (2 kills, 1 dig). The Dragons are at Harbor Creek on Tuesday.