CASSOPOLIS — After strong opening weekends, it appears that several of the area volleyball programs can look forward to a successful 2018.

Dowagiac won the Tracy Baker Memorial Tournament championship over host Cassopolis, while Edwardsburg won the Coloma Early Bird Invitational, which was moved from Kalamazoo Hackett due to construction.

The Chieftains have a new coach in Tony Hooley, who comes to Dowagiac from Marcellus.

Cassopolis and Edwardsburg both have veteran coaches in Demi Schrader and Sarah Strefling respectively.

Both teams also have plenty of returning talent.

The Rangers came up just short against the Chieftains, leaving Schrader ready to get back to work.

“We definitely still have a lot to work on,” she said. “I still need to find a rotation that works best for us and puts people in the right spots. Our right side was a little bit weak today, which was hard when their outside was strong. We definitely need to find the right places for the right people.”

The Rangers should be strong up front the entire season with big hitters Maile Barber and Sophie Fiala.

The pair combined for 59 kills. Fiala also had nine blocks.

Throw Madison Suseland in the middle as well and Cassopolis can hit with the best of them. Suseland finished with 19 kills.

The Eddies finished third at the always tough Gull Lake Blue Devil Invitational on Friday, losing only to host Gull Lake.

Edwardsburg was back at it Saturday morning, going 5-0 to win the Coloma title.

Skye Leach, Brooke Allen and Jocelyn Hack are veteran hitters for the Eddies. That trio finished with a combined 90 kills.

Newcomer Skyelar Birlingham added 21 kills.

Veteran Claire Alby makes everything go. She had 102 setting assists at Coloma and 80 at Gull Lake.

“We had a great weekend,” Strefling said. “It was a lot of volleyball, but Friday we went to Gull Lake and had a chance to play some Class A schools. We did beat Battle Lakeview in pool play which was great, but lost to Gull Lake in semis. I think our seniors are really defining their roles this year. It was a rocky start, but with five of them on the court a majority of the time it is just a learning curve.”

Strefling was pleased with the improvement of Megan Gallagher and Allen.

“Megan and Brooke stepped up big time from last year, and Skye and Claire are always constant which is a given. I am very proud of this group, and Saturday we really did well as a whole.”

Dowagiac will see the Rangers again Sept. 4 before taking on Edwardsburg in Wolverine Conference play Sept. 13.