Hamilton girls volleyball coach Sharon Vanis couldn't help but notice when this week began that her team might be low on matches while another high-flying squad at the same interval (Millennium) was 21-0. 

"It caught my eye that we had only three matches and they'd already played two tournaments,"" Vanis said. "I was anxious to see us get to play more this week."

Quite glad knowing now the outcome was an 11-win week, capped late Saturday afternoon with a 2-1 win over rival Perry in the Gold Bracket title game of the annual Westwood Tournament of Champions at Westwood High. Scores were 25-21, 18-25, 19-17.

Hamilton (14-0) prevailed in the final match getting nine kills and  four blocks from senior Taylor Jacobsen, the tournament's most valuable player. Jacobsen, who missed most of last season due to injury, is one of seven seniors on an 18-player roster. Vanis has utilized most of her players so far with injuries keeping as many as four players out and now only one unable to contribute. There are a lot of options, but Jacobsen is a mainstay who rarely if ever comes off the floor.

"It's been a good thing we have so many on the roster," Vanis said. "We were able to get a lot of them playing time (Friday), and that gave some rest to our starters. I think it helped us today." 

Two freshmen made their presence felt in the title match with middle hitter Jordan Middleton checking in with five kills and five blocks and freshman right side Micah Gryniewicz stepping up with six kills.Bella Zapata led in digs with 11 and setters Tatum Thomas and Reilly Babcock had 15 and 14 assists, respectively.

The final set was a grinder for both teams. Perry led by three early twice (7-4 and 8-5), but soon found itself down 12-9. Hamilton had two match points at 14 but back-to-back kills by junior outside hitter Sian Richardson pulled Perry even. Perry added a block and had its own match point at 15 and 16. Jacobsen answered the first one and Richardson had an attack go awry to knot the score at 16. Perry tied the match one more time at 17, but four hitting errors in the final points secured the title for Hamilton.

Richardson was limited to one killl in the first set, but pounded out 12 in the final two sets to finish with a team-high 13. Senior Brooklyn Poling added eight kills and Tatum Stall six kills.

Hamilton eliminated two-time defending tourney champ Corona del Sol in the quarterfinals of bracket play and took three sets to edge improving Mesa in the semis. Perry, which won seven of nine matches in the tournament and is 12-2 for the season, took down Liberty in the quarters and pesky Basha in three sets in the semis.

The all-tournament team consisted of 12 players, one from each of the 12 teams that qualified for the Gold Bracket final.  Joining Jacobsen on the all-tourney team: Perry's Poling, Mesa's Annie Hatch, Basha's Kylra Porch, Sunnyslope's Macy Wilke, Corona del Sol's Becca Morse, Chandler's Ne Che Newton, Liberty's Abbie Spiek,Desert Ridge's Amanda Jonovich, Gilbert's Catie Speas, Mountain Ridge's Jordan Kress and Centennial's Nyjha Marcelin.