New Teams Win in Memory of Blankinship

Two champions were crowned Sunday at the fourth annual Kim Blankinship Memorial Volleyball Tournament.

Team Patrick Molloys knocked off two-time defending champion Team Pooker in the women's 18-and-over bracket.  In the women's under-18 bracket Team North Mania captured the title with a victory over their southern neighbors from the Laguna Beach Volleyball Club. 

Nearly 100 female athletes, many of them local, competed in the event. The beach tournament honors the late Kim Blankinship, a former volleyball star for Loyola Marymount University and multi-sport athlete at Torrance High. 

Blankinship is still considered by many to be one of the greatest female athletes to come out of the South Bay. The tournament was created four years ago to honor her memory, after she tragically passed away at age 31 from a heart attack.

Tammy Baker, who traveled from Arizona to participate in the tournament, played volleyball with Blankinship at Torrance High and Torrance Club. She saw the tournament as a fitting way to honor her late friend, she said.

"Kim was a great athlete but she was more than that," Baker said.  "She was absolutely adored by everyone.  She touched so many lives ... That's why we're all here today for a great cause and to make sure her memory lives on." 

The event raised funds through team entry fees, raffles sponsored by local businesses, and merchandise sales.  All proceeds go directly to the Kim Blankinship scholarship fund, which benefits deserving female multi-sport athletes from Torrance's four area high schools.

Tournament director and Torrance High men's and women's volleyball coach Nathan Jones found Hermosa Beach to be the perfect venue Sunday, following previous locations in Torrance and Redondo Beach. 

"The city of Hermosa Beach has been so accommodating to us and it's really a great venue to host the tournament," he said. "The ultimate goal is to expand the event so that we can offer more scholarships to other area high schools. We want to see the Kim Blankinship Memorial Tournament become an annual South Bay event." 

The tournament's high school division consisted of 12 teams, while the women's open division (18-and-over) had eight teams competing for the championship.

Patrick Molloys team, in the women's 18-and-over final, was composed of former college players and some current pros. Antoinette Polk, Jerry Moran, Sarah Fredrickson and Melissa Maggiore earned their championship victory after finding themselves down to their last two points at 13-8. 

The Molloys team used their seven straight points to regain their momentum and edge out Team Pooker, 15-13. 

Pooker, the nickname given to Blankinship by her father, consisted of college players and several of Blankinship's former LMU Volleyball teammates, including Blankinship's sister Kristi Copeland, Janette Hecker, Kim Coleman, Mardell Gully, Tammie Burchard, and Suzanne Radcliffe

Hecker, who played two years with Blankinship at LMU, said that the tournament allows accomplished players to reunite with teammates while raising money for the cause.

She admitted that in the spirit of honoring their fallen teammate Pooker had plans to make it a three-peat as tournament champions. Despite the tough loss Hecker didn't lose sight of the tournament's ultimate goals.

"We were in it to win it," she said. "That didn't happen today but we had a lot of fun playing in honor of Kim."

In the high school division North Mania took top honors. The North Mania team — Erika Yagui, Ashley Hotta, Elise Tizon and Ariel Richard — will be seniors at North Torrance High in the fall.  

Mania scored a 28-22 victory over The Laguna Beach Volleyball Club, which included Justine Bowers, Shelbi Stein, Alyse Ford, and Lindsay Jacobs.