High school volleyball: Local stares shine in district matchup

PENINSULA — Eleven local volleyball players got another chance to don their uniforms, participating Friday night in the District 3 volleyball all-star game at Woodridge High School. The game featured the best of the best from Lorain, Medina, Portage and Summit counties. Game 1 of the doubleheader featured 10 of the 11 area girls as the South team swept the match 25-19, 25-18. The South was coached by Crestwood's Wanda Hoffman and she had Morgan Palos from Elyria, Oberlin's Natalie Tackett and Elyria Catholic's Lauren Gorski and Clara Kilgore. "This was a lot of fun and there was a different kind of energy here with so many players from a larger area," said Palos, who finished with four kills, two aces and four assists. "It was a little harder, but once you got past meeting everyone and got on the floor, it was time to play." The North team was coached by Buckeye's Tony Tahan and Columbia's Kelsey Geanuracos. They had Wellington's Brooke Lehmkuhl, Columbia's Bree Heidecker and Nyeisha Reid and Avon Lake's Lilly Rice, Danica McArthur — who this week committed to Cleveland State — and Rachel Meyer, this year's Lorain County Miss Volleyball. "This all-star game is so different in a really good way," said Heidecker who had four kills and a block-kill. "At Avon Lake (Lorain County all-star game) on Monday I got to play with a lot of girls from our conference, but I don't know many of these girls, but the skill level is just so good." In the first match, Columbia's Reid had three kills, Avon Lake's Rice had five kills and teammate Meyer had a pair of aces. For the South, Oberlin's Tackett had a block-kill and an ace. The second match was a back-and-forth affair that saw the teams split the two sets. The South team led by Amherst's Felicia Sanchez won the opening set 25-11, but the North came back to win the second 31-29. The lone local girl in the match was Comets libero Roxy Trunzo, who looked forward to the experience of playing with so many new faces. "It's cool being the only (Lorain County) girl, I get to play with so many new and different girls tonight, it's exciting," Trunzo said. "It's kind of a different night, this is kind of a select group coming from such a big area. I'm glad I got the opportunity to come out here and play." The all-star season isn't quite over for three Lorain County girls who were chosen to play in the OHSVCA state all-star game. Palos, Kilgore and Heidecker will be at Wooster High School on Sunday at 11 a.m. for the two matches. "I'm really honored to be playing in the match on Sunday," Kilgore said. "There are so many girls that could have been chosen and to think I was picked is kind of mind-blowing." Contact James Brady at (440) 329-7135 or jbrady_ct@yahoo.com.