After beating Mona Shores earlier in the season, the Fruitport volleyball team was optimistic about repeating that feat and emerging with a championship trophy on Saturday.
But the Trojans came up short, falling to the Sailors in three straight sets in the finals of the Greater Muskegon Athletic Association Tournament, which includes every team in Muskegon County.
Fruitport finished the day with a 2-1 record and took second place for the second straight year.
The Trojans downed Montague 25-10 25-16 in the first round and North Muskegon 25-22 25-21 in the semifinals, before falling to Mona Shores 21-25, 17-25, 9-25 in the title match.
Fruitport is now 23-11-1 on the season.
“We beat them at our home tournament,” said Fruitport head coach Nicole Bayle. “We are a very scrappy defensive team and we were able to get them a little out of sorts with that back then, but they passed the ball extremely well to, and they have a lot of firepower and size.
“They were better than us. They were the clear winners, but we are learning and growing with every experience we have.”
Ellie Stroup paced the Fruitport offense with 24 kills on the day. Izzy Hanson-Wilbur added 20.
Emma Danicek served six aces for the Trojans. Emma Fecher and Alexa Sweet had 32 and 27 assists, respectively.
The Trojans will try to seal up a conference championship on Saturday when they compete in the O-K Silver conference tournament.
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