Sandburg take home Pumpkin Invite crown

Sandburg went 5-0, beating out 23 other teams from all around the state of Illinois to win the Maine Township Pumpkin Tournament.

The Eagles cruised through their two pool games at Maine South on Friday evening beating out Lake Zurich (25-22, 25-15) and Wheeling (25-17, 25-22) to advance to the gold bracket.

Sandburg then made the short trek to Maine West on Saturday morning where they continued to dominate their opponents beating Lyons (25-13, 25-15) and Libertyville (25-20, 25-8) en route to the championship match against Batavia.

In the finals, Batavia, who were coming off back to back wins, gave Sandburg all they could handle, and even took the first set from the Eagles winning by a score of 25-23.

But Sandburg quickly bounced back into the match. They comfortably won the second set by a score of 25-16, setting up a winner take all third and final set.

The opening of the third set went the way of the Eagles as they jumped out to a 9-6 lead. Batavia looked to have been finally running out of steam after playing three straight matches, but the Bulldogs climbed back into the championship game and even took the lead at 16-12.

However, the Bulldogs could not hold on. Sandburg’s Erica Staunton went on an incredible tear, sending home nine kills in the final set alone to give Sandburg the 25-21 set win and the tournament championship.

In other tournament action, Belleville West defeated Libertyville in the third place match.

After a disappointing pool play, Hersey dominated the silver bracket defeating Maine East (25-22, 25-10), Maine West (25-16, 25-15) and Palatine (25-23, 25-22) to take home ninth place overall, while Carmel defeated Downers Grove South to win the bronze bracket.

Of the three host teams, Maine West placed best at 11th overall, Maine East finished in 13th, and Maine South finished 15th.

If you would like to see more pictures from the championship bracket please email us at ilprepsinsider@gmail.com