California Teams make waves in Hawaii at the Ann Kang Tournament

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Nine teams from California made the trip to the Iolani School Ann Kang Invitational. How did the California teams do in the Aloha state?</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Nine teams from California battled it out with local teams on the island of Oahu from August 11th to the 13th at the 2022 Ann Kang Invitational tournament at Iolani School. Corona Del Mar, Edison, Harvard-Westlake, La Jolla Country Day School, Mira Costa, Palos Verdes, Redondo Union, Santa Margarita, and Sierra Canyon joined seven of some of the top programs from the islands. Last year, it was an all-California final with Village Christian (Sun Valley, CA) defeating  Mira Costa in four sets. There wasn't a tournament in 2020 due to covid but in 2019, Redondo Union was crowned the champion. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Play opened up on Thursday, August 11th with a full day of volleyball. The format was best of three, with two pools of eight, and top two from each pool advancing to the gold bracket. Teams from California that had a strong first day were Mira Costa, Redondo Union, Sierra Canyon, and Palos Verdes who all went undefeated on the first day of pool play. Mira Costa looked sharp all day with eventual tournament Most Outstanding Player, [player_tooltip player_id='162772' first='Charlie' last='Fuerbringer'] at the helm directing her team. Fuerbringer can do it all, with the ability to direct the offense as a setter but also having the ability to be a successful attacker if needed. She is committed to Wisconsin. The second day of play saw Mira Costa and Sierra Canyon continuing to dominate their pools and staying undefeated, while in the other pool Redondo Union dropped a match to the host school Iolani and Palos Verdes continued to stay undefeated.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The last day of play had pools finishing up and some epic battles with Mira Costa and Sierra Canyon duking it out and Palos Verdes and Redondo Union going to battle. Sierra Canyon edged Mira Costa in pool play, completing pool play undefeated, while Redondo Union, Iolani, and Palos Verdes all had a 6-1 record in the other pool. Redondo Union showed fighting spirit edging past Palos Verdes in pool play (25-14, 22-25, 16-14) and were bolstered by the attacking of Oklahoma commit senior outside hitter, [player_tooltip player_id='161495' first='Mele' last='Corral-Blagojevich']. However, Redondo was slightly edged by the other two teams in set and point ratio, taking them out of the running for the gold bracket. Mira Costa advanced to the championship match and was able to exact their revenge on Sierra Canyon to take the final match in two sets (25-20, 25-22).</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Mira Costa's [player_tooltip player_id='162772' first='Charlie' last='Fuerbringer'] was selected as the tournament's most outstanding player, while her teammates, senior outside hitter [player_tooltip player_id='161466' first='Drew' last='Wright']  and senior setter/opposite Tanon Rosenthal were also selected to the all-tournament team. Sierra Canyon's senior opposite, [player_tooltip player_id='160313' first='Olivia' last='Babcock'] and sophomore libero, [player_tooltip player_id='706310' first='Lauren' last='Lynch'] were also all-tournament selections. Iolani, which finished third along with Palos Verdes, was represented by senior middle blocker, Mari Lawton, and senior outside hitter, Senna Roberts-Navarro, while Palos Verdes had sophomore standout, 6'4” outside hitter [player_tooltip player_id='188236' first='Kaci' last='Demaria'] rounding out the all-tournament team.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:gallery {"linkTo":"none"} --> <figure class="wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped"></figure> <!-- /wp:gallery --> <!-- wp:image {"id":211673,"sizeSlug":"large","linkDestination":"none"} --> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pd/uploads/2022/07/Kaci-Demaria-scaled-e1658781237785-740x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-211673" /><figcaption>All-Tournament Selection [player_tooltip player_id='188236' first='Kaci' last='Demaria'] (6'4" Sophomore OH) from Palos Verdes High School. </figcaption></figure> <!-- /wp:image --> <!-- wp:image --> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img alt="" /></figure> <!-- /wp:image --> <!-- wp:image --> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img alt="" /></figure> <!-- /wp:image -->