Paige Hlutke directs a ball during Wawasee’s match against South Central. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

BOURBON – The annual Triton Volleyball Invitational was fun as usual, just not as fun as it could have been for two local teams.

Wawasee finished third while host Triton fell short in the championship to settle for second place. Both teams would finish the tournament with a 2-1 record and have their tourney title hopes dashed by eventual champion, Glenn.

Triton managed to build off of a hard fought match against rival Tippecanoe Valley on Thursday night and win its first two matches rather easily. The Trojans dominated Argos in the opening game of the day, 25-5 and would complete the sweep over the Dragons with a 25-12 win in game two.

In Triton’s semi-final match against Culver the Trojans would once against break out the brooms for a sweep. Triton was led by six kills in the match from Jaela Meister in the 25-13, 25-13 win.

Triton’s dominance was cut short by a Glenn team that is not accustomed to losing so far this season. Triton kept it close in the first game, losing 25-21 but the Falcons would pull away with a 25-13 victory in game two. A 3-0 mark in Saturday’s tournament gives Glenn an impressive 11-0 record on the season.

“We played well on Thursday night and I think that carried over to today,” said Triton head coach Samantha Willsey. “We had very few errors in our first two matches and won pretty easily. Glenn swept us 3-0 earlier in the season so we knew they would be a challenge if we saw them today and they were.”

Wawasee did not play as well in its opening contest, struggling to get a sweep over South Central. The Warriors overcame some adversity and would win the match 25-18, 25-17 but the team did not look crisp and that showed up immediately in the semi-final contest against Glenn.

The Warriors dug themselves a hole early in game one against the Falcons and would suffer a 25-17 defeat. The Falcons were pushed more in the second game but Wawasee could still not get over the hump, falling 25-19.

LaVille would be next on Wawasee’s docket in the tourney’s third place game. The Warriors found more of a rhythm and were able to down LaVille 25-14, 25-18 to go home with a 2-1 record on the day and an 8-7 mark on the season.

“We played terrible volleyball, all day,” said Wawasee head coach Jeff Phillips. “We continue to struggle with errors and we make the game harder than it needs to be.”

Liz Hardy stood out for the Warriors today as she led the team with 2.5 blocks. Meghan Fretz led Wawasee with 19 kills while Aly Anderson had 43 digs to help the Warrior effort.