The Goshen Eagles volleyball team hosted its first ever Lady Eagles Volleyball Classic on Saturday and walked away with the championship.

After winning their pool on court one the Eagles advanced to the semi-final round to play the Straughn. The Eagles were able to defeat the Tigers in three games 25-11, 17-25 and 15-10 to advanced to play in the championship against Ariton who defeated Brindlee Mountain, 25-20 and 25-22 in the second semi-final of the tournament.

The Eagles dominated the championship, sweeping the Purple Cats 25-8 and 25-23.

“I think the girls may have been a little anxious hosting our first tournament so I’m not going to say we played our best, but we played good,” said Eagles head coach Amy Warrick. “It seemed like we were up and down during the day, but I don’t know if because of nerves or if they took it easy because we were home.”]

The Eagles had key members step up over the weekend to help the Eagles win the championship. Casey Allen finished with 61 kills during the tournament with 28 blocks and eight digs. Kati Thomas finished with 74 kills with 14 blocks and 10 digs. Hannah Calhoun had 43 digs, while Lexie Ellisor had 37 digs and one ace.

Playing in front a home crowd helped the Eagles, despite the challenge of playing on a split court.

“It was a great atmosphere to host our first tournament,” Warrick said. “We had a lot of community support and the teams seemed to really enjoy our facilities.”

One of the special challenges that hosting a tournament brings is being able to transform your gym into two different courts. Adjusting to having two courts was a challenge for the Eagles as they tried to adjust to the new sight lines.

“It’s an adjustment,” Warrick said. “It’s good and bad. It’s good because we won and this is how we will play during regional play. It was a different feel, we practiced all week to try and get adjusted.”

The Eagles will close out their regular season this afternoon at 4:30 against Ariton before opening up area play on the Oct. 19.