Fight Club Comes Out Swinging, Wins 18 Liberty

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Kansas will be represented come April in the Liberty division as Fight Club 18-1 won the Kansas City MLK tournament going 7-2 on the weekend. Day one was one of those moments where you held your breath after being in a three-team pool and all three teams going 1-1. Lucky for them, their sweep of BSVBC 18 Blue in the day's second match proved pivotal after losing in three sets to EC Power, who was swept earlier by BSVBC. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The South Kansas club has a well-built roster with many players who earned accolades after the high school season, and some who are committed to playing at the next level. [player_tooltip player_id='122207' first='Maliyah' last='Johnson'] capped a tremendous career at Hutchison by earning first-team All-State honors and is one of the top pins on this team. Emery May was a 4A second-team selection in the middle for Andale. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Due to a three-team pool, they had to play a crossover match to determine placement in the next day's pools and it was a battle. They found themselves with their back against the walls after dropping the first set to Invasion 18 Black -18. They came out with vengeance in the second set, racing out to a big lead and finishing it off with a -13 win. The third set was more even as both teams traded blows. Setter Brailiee Bogle, who was an honorable mention in the state's biggest class was on her game in this match. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The second day started off not the way they would have liked, losing in straight sets to A5 18-Scott. This would force them to be perfect the rest of the afternoon/evening to have a shot at the gold bracket on Monday. They handled the pressure and swept Dynasty 18 Blue in two highly contested sets, -23 and -23. They finished off their day taking down Palm Beach Jrs. A5 would suffer a loss as well but the head-to-head over Fight Club earned them the pool top spot. The University of Kansas City-Missouri pledge Peyton Benoit was good defensively on the afternoon along with Johnson and Coffeyville Community College signee [player_tooltip player_id='214639' first='Daetyn' last='Bogle'] made key plays. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The eight-team gold bracket would start with fireworks for the Kansas club as they faced a formidable opponent in Mizuno Club North. The first set went Fight Club's way before the Kansas City team fought back to grab the second set behind the right arm of Shaye Koski. The third set had all the emotions with great defensive effort along the back row and at the net with block after block, but Fight Club scratched and survived for a 15-13 third-set win. [player_tooltip player_id='119701' first='Addy' last='Foster'] stepped up big in this match. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The quarterfinal win gave Fight Club the boost and momentum to take care of business with little fanfare in the semis and finals. A sweep of Team Colorado and Oklahoma Peak gave them the title and an early bid to nationals come April! Other rostered players not mentioned in the article: Lauryn Davis, Val Luna (Cowley signee), Haylie Saunders (K-State row signee), and Lillian Zeigler. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->