Thursday, July 30, 2009

Summer Volleyball Wraps Up

By Clint Cox
The 2009 Summer Volleyball league at Marianna High School concluded this past Tuesday night and by all accounts was a big success. Over the course of the month of July seven different area high school volleyball squads competed against each other on Tuesday night at the Dog House. Jackson County teams that participated included the host team Marianna, Cottondale and Sneads. Other participants
included Blountstown, Liberty County, Chipley and Providence. The format for the league included two 55 minute matches. Two courts were utilized so four teams hit the floor each Tuesday night with two 55 minute matches scheduled. Teams would compete against each other for 55 minutes, usually playing about 3 games. The teams would then swap opponents for another 55 minute set.
All three of Jackson County’s representatives said the league, held for the second year at Marianna, is a great idea. Cottondale Coach Cassie Whiddon summed up the Lady Hornets as making progress this summer. “We are going to be really young this year. The summer league has really gone well and our ladies have made drastic improvements. We just got back from a summer camp at the University of Florida and that has helped a lot as well. Even though we are going to be young this season, we have high hopes,” commented Whiddon.
Sneads Coach Shelia Roberts said her squad also participated in the camp at Florida. “This was our fifth year going to that camp and we finished third in our pool. It was a really tough pool and we were very excited about how we played,” said Roberts. As for the summer league at Marianna it continues to fine tune her senior laden squad (five seniors). “We’ve played league ball in June down in Sneads with Blountstown and Liberty County. So coming here to Marianna just continues that process of trying to get ready for the season. This is a good league and it has gone really well,” said Roberts.
Marianna’s Belinda Christopher was impressed with the level of play this summer. “The league has gone great and we’ve had a real good response. There have been some top notch teams participating and that will only help everyone’s programs,” commented Christopher. As for the Lady Bulldogs, Christopher said they will be like Cottondale, very young. “We lost five of our six starters from last year to graduation so this will definitely be a rebuilding year for us. That’s what makes this league play so important, it gives everyone an idea of their strengths and weaknesses and what we need to be working on to get ready for the season,” said Christopher.
In first round action on Tuesday night Marianna fell 2-1 to Liberty County while Sneads downed Cottondale 2-1. In round two Marianna got a 2-1 victory over Cottondale while Sneads swept Liberty County 3-0.

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