The 28th annual Crossroads Classic Volleyball Tournament is scheduled for Friday and Saturday.

There will be 24 teams from four states competing in the annual event that will be played at Effingham and St. Anthony high school on Friday and at Effingham High School and Effingham Junior High on Saturday.

Wheaton St. Francis, who has won this tournament six times, will return, as will Belleville Althoff, a four-time winner, and Ozark, Missouri, the reigning champion.

Matches will start at 6 p.m. Friday. Bracket play on Saturday will be determined by order of finish in Friday’s pool play. Depending on results, the teams will placed in Gold Flight, Silver Flight or Bronze Flight.

Effingham went 2-1 Saturday in a junior varsity volleyball tournament in Champaign.

The Lady Hearts opened with a loss to Paxton-Buckley-Loda. The scores were 25-21, 22-25, 13-15. Effingham then bounced back to beat Tuscola by scores of 25-13, 25-18, and Rantoul by scores of 25-18, 25-13.

For Effingham, Brueklyn Belcher had 14 kills, 1 assist, 3 digs, 1 block; Tori Budde 23 assists, 2 aces, 13 digs; Sawyer Althoff 15 digs; Evelyn Reynolds 1 kill, 6 digs; Mattie Angel 1 kill, 26 assists, 4 aces, 21 digs; Savannah Morrissey 8 kills, 2 assists, 2 digs, 1 block; Katie Carie 11 kills, 5 aces, 6 digs, 1 block; Leah Hanfland 1 kill, 11 digs; Krista Phillips 9 kills, 2 digs, 2 blocks; Chloe Koester 8 kills, 2 assists, 2 aces, 6 digs; Megan Ballman 2 kills, 11 assists, 1 ace, 23 digs; and Annie Frost 12 kills, 1 assist.

The JV team is now 3-3.

By Steve Raymond

ET Sports Report

Everybody was cheering for a team in pink Tuesday night.

It was the annual Pink Out Night volleyball game between Effingham and St. Anthony and both squads were wearing different shades of pink shirts.

The Lady Hearts and their superior height was the difference in Effingham’s 25-22, 25-15 victory at The Enlow Center.

“You can’t teach tall,” EHS Coach Laurie Bohnhoff said. “We were three to five inches higher above the net than they were, so we could swing away. It makes a big difference.”

And swing away they did.

Jacy Boatman, Alexis Chrappa and Sam Urch combined for 20 of the team’s 24 kills, helping Effingham improve to 2-0 for the young season.

Effingham opened Apollo Conference volleyball play Thursday with a come-from-behind victory at home over Mt. Zion.

The Lady Braves took the first game, 25-21, but the Lady Hearts bounced back to win 25-19, 25-18 to improve its early season record to 3-0.

Alexis Chrappa and Jacy Boatman combined for 26 kills and Hayley Diveley had 30 assists to help Effingham get the win.

“We struggled serving in game one,” said EHS coach Laurie Bohnhoff. “But we came out and serve received really well in game two. Plus, our outside hitters had some great shots.”

For the Lady Hearts, Diveley had 1 kill, 30 assists, 4 digs; Chrappa 16 kills, 1 assist, 1 ace, 10 digs; Kennedy Sowell 5 kills, 1 assist, 2 digs, 1 block; Sam Urch 4 kills; Boatman 10 kills, 5 aces, 7 digs, 1 block; Callie Feldhake 2 kills, 1 assist, 1 ace, 2 digs; Morgan Hagler 6 digs; and Olivia Martin 2 kills, 1 assist, 3 aces, 5 digs.

Mt. Zion won the junior varsity match by scores of 25-18, 18-25, 15-11; and the schools split the freshman match. Mt. Zion won the opener 21-19, but the Lady Hearts came back to take the second game, 22-20.

Effingham will play at Taylorville Tuesday.

The Effingham Lady Hearts opened their volleyball season in impressive fashion Thursday night, posting a two-game victory at home over Newton.

The scores were 25-13, 25-19.

For EHS, Taylor O’Dell had 2 assists; Hayley Dively 1 kill, 14 assists, 3 aces, 5 digs; Alexis Chrappa 2 kills, 6 digs, 1 block; Kennedy Sowell 6 kills, 1 dig, 1 block; Sam Urch 6 kills, 1 ace, 1 block; Jacy Boatman 5 kills, 1 ace, 8 digs; Callie Feldhake 1 kill, 2 assists, 2 digs; and Olivia Martin 2 assists, 6 digs.

“We hit really well in the varsity game,” said EHS coach Laurie Bohnhoff. “This was a great start to the season. Newton has a really solid team. We didn't miss any serves and kept the momentum throughout.”

The Effingham JV team lost two games by scores of 10-25 and 12-25.

For the Lady Hearts, Brueklyn Belcher had 3 kills, 1 dig, 2 blocks; Tori Budde 2 assists, 1 dig; Sawyer Althoff 1 kill, 1 block; Evelyn Reynolds 1 assist, 1 dig; Morgan Hagler 1 kill, 1 ace, 6 digs; Mattie Angel 1 kill, 4 assists, 4 digs; Savannah Morrissey 2 kills, 1 assist; Katie Carie 2 kills, 2 digs; Leah Hanfland 1 dig; Krista Phillips 2 kills; and Megan Ballman 1 ace, 4 kills.

The EHS freshmen were defeated in three games. The scores were 26-24, 22-25, 10-12.

Effingham will return to action Tuesday at St. Anthony. It will be Pink Out Night.