Photo courtesy of BHS Volleyball

The No. 2 seeded Hilanders won the Challenger Invitational held in Medford by defeating Henley in the finals. Back row: Megan Weil, Coral Averett, Kristee Condon, and Baileigh Nisbet. Front row: Co-head coach Paula Toney, Amaya Ballard, Natalee Otley-Smith, Bailey Temple, Shelby Peasley and co-head coach Courtney Toney.

The Lady Hilander volleyball team started off the 2026-27 season as if they haven’t stopped playing, marching into the Challenger Invite and winning it all.

Burns traveled to Medford to play in the Challenger Invite Tournament held Saturday, Aug. 29. The team played six games, with equal games for pool and bracket games.

The Hilanders traveled with eight players as the tournament hosted more than 20 teams from across the state of Oregon, kicking off the volleyball season.

In pool play, Burns defeated Banks 2-0, Klamath Union 2-0 and tied with Trinity Lutheran 1-1.

They opened up bracket play against Santiam Christian, rolling over the Eagles in straight sets 25-20, 25-15. In the game, Megan Weil led the team in attacking, racking up 11 kills for a .450 hitting percentage. Amaya Ballard smashed six kills and Shelby Peasley added three.

As a team, the Hilanders served seven aces with Ballard leading the way with four. Bailey Temple had two and Weil had one.

Kristee Condon, Ballard, Peasley, and Weil each picked up one block, while Baileigh Nisbet finished the game with 13 of the team’s 15 assists.

Temple led the team with eight digs, while Natalie Otley-Smith, Nisbet, and Weil each finished with three digs.

In their second game of bracket play, the Hilanders faced off against host school Cascade Christian and downed the Challengers in straight sets 25-19, 25-9.

Burns finished the game against the Eagles with 16 kills, as Weil led the way with eight. Ballard had four kills, while Peasley and Coral Averett finished with two kills.

Temple led the team with three aces and Nisbet finished with two. Weil finished with the team’s only block.

Temple also led the team in digs with nine, while Weil and Ballard had three digs.

Nisbet led the team in ball handling with 13 assists.

The Hilanders then faced off against Henley in the championship game. Burns lost the first set 25-21, before winning the next two sets 25-23 and 15-8, to be crowned champions.

Burns finished the three sets with 18 team kills. Ballard led the way in attacking with six kills, while Weil had five, Averett had three and Peasley and Condon finished with two kills.

Both Temple and Ballard served four aces each, while Nisbet had one.

Averett and Peasley finished with two blocks, while Nisbet had all 17 of the team’s assists.

Temple finished with eight of the team’s 19 digs, with Weil and Nisbet each picking up four digs.

Burns opens their season with a 3-0 record and hosted Crane Tuesday, Sept. 1. Score and stats were unavailable at press time. They’ll finish off the week with a trip to Baker City where they’ll take part in the Baker Bash on Saturday, Sept. 5.