CLINTON —  Clinton recently hosted and IESA volleyball event.  On Friday, March 10 and Saturday, March 11 the Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) held the Class 1A Girls 7th grade Volleyball State Finals here at Clinton Junior High School. 

The tournament began with eight teams in the quarterfinals on Friday and ended with the semifinals Saturday morning and the championship round on Saturday afternoon.

The quarterfinal round saw the elimination of the Grant Park Dragons (12-10) in two sets, the Sigel St. Michael’s Sharpshooters (22-2) in a three-set battle that went into extra length in the third set, the LaSalle Trinity Catholic Saints (18-1) in two sets, and the Royal Prairieview Ogden Mustangs (17-9) being downed in two very quick sets.

The semifinals started early Saturday morning with two matches.  The first pairing was between the Williamsfield Bombers and the Lincoln West Lincoln-Broadwell Wolverines.  This was another exciting match that went to three sets. 

Apparently the Wolverines had spent much of their season in thre-set matches as their quarterfinal match would attest.  This time they ended on the losing side of the 18-25/25-6/22-25 scoring.  This put the Wolverines in the third place match and their opponents, the Williamsfield Bombers in the championship match. 

The second semifinal pitted the Greenfield Tigers against the top seeded Pontiac St. Mary’s Saints.  This was a quick match compared to others and the Saints made short work of the Tigers in two sets 25-15/25-13.  The Saints would move to the championship and the Tigers would face the ever tough Wolverines.

The finals round of matches began in the early afternoon Saturday with the third place match first on the agenda.  The West Lincoln-Broadwell was matched with the Greenfield Tigers. 

The Wolverines began slowly, as usual, but then caught fire and went on a 17-point run with three servers to overtake the Tigers and win the first set 25-17.

The second set was never a doubt from the start with the Wolverines (18-7) striking first and hard to take the set 25-9, the match 2-0 and claiming third place in the state in Class 1A.  The Tigers (19-10) were fourth. 

The final match of the tournament was set between the Williamsville Bombers and the Pontiac St. Mary’s Saints.  This was almost a given as to the victor, but the match went on as an anti-climax to the weekend.  The Saints took the championship match in two straight sets (25-13/25-9) leaving the Bombers ((22-4) in second place and the Saints (27-0) the champions in Class 1A.