Calallen High School Volleyball

If all Photos do not download, hit refresh button, repeat as necessary.

Meet the 2007 Calallen High School Volleyball Lady Wildcats.

The 2007 Calallen High School Volleyball Lady Wildcats CCISD SpikeFest Tournament Champions. Back-to-back Championships.

The 2007 Calallen High School Volleyball Lady Wildcats who earned Tournament honors: Courtney Oertli, All-Tournament, Kelsey Schwirtlich MVP, and Angela Hook All-Tournament.

ARTICLE CREDIT: Stuart Duncan; Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

Twice as nice: Calallen grabs SpikeFest title Sunday, August 19, 2007 CORPUS CHRISTI — This CCISD McDonald's SpikeFest tournament title was twice as nice for the Calallen volleyball team, which made history Saturday by winning it again.

The Class 4A Wildcats became the first Corpus Christi volleyball team to win the tournament's championship division two consecutive seasons Saturday afternoon with a 25-15, 25-16, 25-15 title match victory over area rival Carroll at Ray High School.

"This is something that our girls really wanted to do for the Corpus Christi area, for themselves and for Calallen," Wildcats coach Lupe Cardona said.

"First time ever," Calallen senior middle blocker Kelsey Schwirtlich said with a smile. "We have nine seniors and everybody expects us to do really well. So, we just gave it our best shot and we made history."

Calallen (6-0) rolled to three straight tournament victories Saturday to retain the crown and didn't lose a game in doing so. The Wildcats also swept Class 5A Ray in the tournament quarterfinals and Class 4A Mission in the semifinals, before take care of the Tigers for the second time in a week in the championship match.

Calallen also opened the season earlier in the week with a four-game, non-district road triumph over Carroll.

"Losing to Calallen -- that's nothing to be ashamed of considering they have so much depth," said Carroll coach Doris Elizondo, whose team placed second in the tournament for the first time since 2003 after finishing third last season. "We didn't play near to the level that we played at in our house last Monday. So, I'm disappointed because I thought we could've played a little better today." Unlike Monday's highly-contested match, Saturday's rematch between the teams was less dramatic, as Calallen cruised to sweep the Tigers.

While Schwirtlich -- who plans to sign a letter of intent in November to play Division I ball for Texas-San Antonio -- earned tournament Offensive MVP honors thanks to her match-high 11 kills, she had also plenty of help against Carroll.

Senior setter Courtney Oertli (who has committed to play at Villanova next season), senior middle blocker Angela Hook (who also made the all-tournament team with six kills and a team-high three blocks) and senior outside hitter Amanda Haven (nine kills) also helped supply the Wildcats with plenty of offensive firepower in the match.

"We definitely have the hitters -- it's not just two kids that can hit on our team," Cardona said. "It kept (Carroll) guessing as to who we were going to go to today, so that was really (a key) for us."

Calallen senior defensive specialists Becky Hook, who had a team-high 14 digs, and Tamara Wostal also combined for 16 points off serves and two aces.

Junior outside hitter Hailey Gillis (an all-tournament selection who had a team-high seven kills in the match), senior middle blocker Jessica Jimenez (who was the tournament's Defensive MVP) and junior outside hitter Melanie Steen combined for 15 kills to lead the Tigers.

Junior setter Ashley Carrillo also made the all tournament team for Carroll (2-2).

The Tigers and Wildcats will meet again Monday in another non-district match at Calallen at 4 p.m.

"It's a great feeling to beat such a good team like Carroll twice but it's (even more) difficult to beat them three times, so we're going to have to be ready."

"Calallen's a real ripe team and we're still a little green," Elizondo said. "We're still feeling out where we need to be. We still have a lot of work to do."

In other SpikeFest matches Saturday, King won the consolation championship of the championship division, while Beeville won the gold division and Flour Bluff finished third in the gold division.

CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

CALALLEN def. CARROLL 25-15, 25-16, 25-15

Aces Calallen: Becky Hook 2. Carroll: Erica Humbach 1. Assists Calallen: Schwirtlich 14, Oertli 13. Blocks Calallen. Angela Hook 3. Carroll: Jessica Jimenez 1, Hailey Gillis 1. Digs Calallen: Becky Hook 14, Amanda Haven 9. Kills Calallen: Schwirtlich 11, Oertli 10. Carroll: Gillis 7, Jimenez 4, Melanie Sreen 4.

Records Calallen, Non-district, 6-0. Carroll, 2-2.

Third place match

Mission Veterans Memorial def. San Marcos, 25-22, 25-16, 25-19.

Semifinals

Calallen def. Mission Veterans Memorial, in two games. Carroll def. San Marcos, 25-18, 25-16. Quarterfinals

Calallen def. Ray, 25-13, 25-8; Carroll def. King, 25-12, 25-14.

Consolation bracket

Consolation championship King def. Peaster, 25-11, 25-7. Semifinals Peaster def. Ray, 20-25, 25-11, 26-24; King def. Laredo Martin, 25-15, 25-7.

Gold Division bracket

Championship match Beeville def. Poteet, 25-18, 25-23, 25-11.

Third place Flour Bluff def. Port Lavaca Calhoun, 25-16, 25-16, 25-11.

Semifinals Beeville def. Flour Bluff, 18-25, 25-22, 25-15. Pleasanton def. Taft, 25-15, 25-17.