Grant Union battled up the bracket to victory Saturday at their home invitational tournament.

The 2A Lady Prospectors beat 3A Burns 2-0 in the championship game with scores of 25-12 and 25-21.

Pilot Rock finished in third place over Heppner.

The championship match was a hard-fought win for Grant Union.

The Hilanders stayed ahead early on in the final set, and the teams tied the score a few times. At 20-19, the Prospectors held the lead for the 25-21 win.

“It was a good matchup with quite a few long rallies and strong defensive plays,” said Grant Union head coach Shae Speth. “It was good to be challenged and have to come from behind.”

Prospector Reagan Shelley said she was happy with the outcome.

“It was good to see all of these teams here, and we just really showed what we’re going to bring this season,” she said.

When the team got down in the final set, she said the team stayed focused.

“We did a good job of communicating which helped us keep our intensity up,” she said.

Grant Union’s Whitney McClellan said it was a good way for them to start the season.

“I think it’s a good outlook for what we have in store for the season,” she said.

Speth said McClellan had a great day, defensively.

“She has improved much since last season on reading hitters to make strong defensive plays,” Speth said.

She noted Mariah Moulton showed strength offensively and defensively with strong hitting.

“Sydney Brockway had a strong showing in her first full varsity match,” Speth said. “She went on many serving runs, hit well and was solid in serve-receive.”

“Taylor Allen came in as a serving and defensive specialist, serving several aces and getting our opponents out of system offensively,” the coach said.

She added Hailie Wright performed well at setter, running the offense and keeping the tempo where they needed it.

“This first weekend always reveals our strengths and weaknesses early in the season, both as a team and individually,” Speth said. “Over the next few weeks, we’ll work on making the needed adjustments.”

Prairie City started off on the right foot with a 25-14 win over Crane in pool play.

“We were ahead at the start,” said Prairie City assistant coach Louanne Zweygardt. “The younger girls are stepping up and improving rapidly, and the upperclassmen are showing strong leadership skills.”

The win was followed by a 25-12 loss to Grant Union, and in bracket play, the Panthers lost 25-17 and 25-5 to Pilot Rock.

Panther head coach Lance Zweygardt said they had excellent coverage but had too many unforced serve-receive errors.

“We’re working on some new things with them and switching things up,” Louanne said. “Some of them worked and some didn’t.”

Panther Cassie Hire said their first games of the season at the tournament were rough.

“I thought our lower classmen stepped up,” she said. “I’m looking forward to the next tournament.”

Panther player Brianna Zweygardt said the team has some things to work on, but she’s ready for the next game.

“Beating Crane — that was big for us,” she said. “We’ll face them throughout the season.”

Her teammate Rilee Emmel agreed.

“For our first game against Crane, we played really good,” Emmel said. “It was our strongest game.”

After hosting Burns on Wednesday, Aug. 30, and Spray/Mitchell on Thursday, Prairie City will host teams on Saturday for their home tournament.

Although Monument/Dayville lost their matches, they had a good learning experience against 2A Weston-McEwen and Heppner.

Monument/Dayville head coach Kristi Emerson said she is pleased with her team.

“We still have a lot to go over, but the girls are grasping it,” she said, adding she was happy to see her players correct mistakes made in the first game when they played in the second.

In pool play, the Tigers fell 25-15 to Weston-McEwen, then kept it close in their second game with a 25-22 loss to Heppner.

“I thought they did very well,” she said. “They didn’t get down on themselves and stayed positive.”

Other teams competing included 1A Jordan Valley and 3A Nyssa, which beat Monument/Dayville 2-1 in the consolation bracket with scores of 22-25, 25-15 and 15-7.