Information provided by Phil Lozen 

Milan volleyball continued its strong start to the season by winning the Greyhound Invitational at Eaton Rapids Saturday.  

It was the second tournament title of the year after winning the Chelsea invite earlier in the season. 

Milan beat Fowler (Ranked No. 4 in D4) to open the day 25-18, 25-23 before cruising past Battle Creek Central in two. The Big Reds outlasted Eaton Rapids in a crossover match 25-20, 27-25.  

The Big Reds earned the top seed into the playoffs and a first-round bye before taking on Lenawee Christian, who like the Big Reds, made the MHSAA State Semis last year. Milan topped the Cougars 25-21, 25-23.  

Milan closed out the second set off a perfect pass from Lauryn Parris to setter Madison Slack, who fed Malea Wourman for a big kill down the front of the Lenawee Christian block. Wourman had 13 kills and hit .500 for the match against Lenawee Christian.  

A rematch with Eaton Rapids awaited Milan in the finals. Eaton Rapids won the first set 25-22, ensuring if Milan was to win its second tourney title in a row it would need to do so in three sets again, just like at Chelsea.  

Milan did just that, winning 25-18 15-12 in the final 2 sets to secure the title. The Big Reds turned up the defense in the final 2 sets. Eaton Rapids hit .333 in the first set, but the Big Reds held them to just .113 the rest of the match while Milan upped its offense and hit .263 in the final two sets.  

Wourman had 14 kills, six in the 15-point third set alone, while hitting .306 for the match. Lauryn Parris paced the defense with 11 digs, but Wourman (9), Aubree Higgins (8) and Laila Frye (6) also helped key the backcourt D. Up front, Ava Demond had three blocks while Madison Slack and Lana Pacholke had two each.  

For the day, Wourman had 50 kills, hitting over .300. Higgins had 32. Demond racked up 8 blocks on the day and Parris had 40 digs. Slack had 82 assists 

Milan is now 13-1 overall and 2-0 in the Huron League.