Volleyball players from Wood River Volleyball Club attended the Volleyball Festival at Reno, Nev. June 23-30.
Two teams, comprised of players from Wood River and the Magic Valley, competed against squads from the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Canada.
The local girls played 15 matches over five days.
Elissa Baker, Leah McIlhenny, Kelsey Lidstrom, Casey Vegwert, Hannah Richards, Megan Parrish of Jerome, and Shanae Astle and Kelsy Newton of Filer made up the 17-and-under team coached by Tim Richards of Wood River.
Hannah Gove, Carly Ballantyne, Angela Coleman, Kylie Anderson, Kaylee Baker, Felice Hopkins of Twin Falls, Erica Kober and Katie Viestra of Filer) and Filer coach Shaun Pohlman made up the 16-and-under team.
The 17-and-under travel team had a great week, finishing in 37th place—highest finish for a Wood River team since the summer squads started attending the Volleyball Festival at Sacramento four years ago.
They played teams from Alaska, Wyoming, Canada, Northern California, Hawaii, Washington, Texas, and Oregon. In the process they took nine of their 15 matches to the third game in a two-out-of-three game tournament format.
All the players on the 16-and-under team made their maiden voyage to the Volleyball Festival. Finishing 177th of 215 teams, they made a strong showing after a slow start at the beginning of the week. The girls met each other when they practiced several times in June before heading to Reno.
The Volleyball Festival is in its 23rd year of providing some 800 teams and close to 10,000 players ages 12-18 years old the experience of competing against girls from all over North America.
