Ionia Varsity Volleyball traveled to Mason today and battled back to bring home the 2nd place trophy! The Bulldogs opened pool play against Lansing Catholic, getting off to a strong start but ultimately dropping the 1st set 24-26. Ionia struggled to rebound and dropped the 2nd set to the Cougars and their next match to Parma Western as well. The Bulldogs worked together against Lansing Everett to finish pool play with a resounding win and placed 3rd overall in their pool. In the first round of bracket play Ionia faced off against Jackson Northwest, the 2nd seed from the opposing pool. The Bulldogs took control of the match early on and never looked back downing the Mounties 25-13 & 25-15. The semi-final round was against the 1 seed from Ionia's pool, Parma Western. After a back and forth battle in the 1st set, Ionia found their groove and finished the 2nd set 25-17 to make it to the tournament championship. The final round brought the Bulldogs full circle as they matched up once again with the LCC Cougars. Ionia put together a balanced attack to take the 1st set 25-22. A back and forth effort saw the Bulldogs come up just short in the 2nd set 22-25. After getting down early in the short 3rd set, Ionia climbed back even and had great play on offense and defense but came up just shy dropping the match in 3, 16-18. Although a tough finish, the Bulldogs earned a strong 2nd place finish out of the 8 teams! 

A big part of the turn around for Ionia was offense today, led by Junior Grace Droste who hit a career milestone today with her 1000th Career Assist! Congratulations! She finished the day with 85 assists total. Logan Thomas led the offense with 42 kills while Amaya Frias added 22 and Ireland Brown put down another 16. Frias also led the offense behind the service line with 13 aces while Alexias Daugherty added 10. Defense was a balanced effort throughout the day led by Thomas with 44 digs while Paislie Patterson kept 43 in play and Daugherty kept up another 30. At the net on defense Tessa Lemke led with 7 blocks while Droste added 4 more. 

The Bulldogs are now 12-6 overall on the season and are back in their home gym for a conference matchup against Charlotte on Tuesday at 6pm. Let's pack the stands and get loud! Great work Bulldogs!