Raiders win area title

By EASportsToday.com
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Updated: October 21, 2014

Pleasant Valley sweeps Weaver, Wellborn to reach 3A Super Regional

Pleasant Valley volleyball coach Dana Bryant hoped to give her team a sense of what they were playing for wearing a 2008 state tournament shirt during their area tournament Monday.

Class 3A, Area 12
Pleasant Valley 3, Weaver 0 (25-19, 25-17, 25-17)
Wellborn 3, Piedmont 0 (25-23, 25-16, 25-18)
Pleasant Valley 3, Wellborn 0 (25-20, 25-16, 25-16)

By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today

JACKSONVILLE – Dana Bryant sat on the bench Monday directing her Pleasant Valley volleyball team wearing a long-sleeved tee from the 2008 state tournament.

The connection may have been lost on the players at first, but there definitely was a method to her fashion madness.

She wanted the Raiders to see exactly what they were playing for at this stage of the season.

“I wasn’t sure if anybody would even notice, but I did put a little thought into me putting it on,” Bryant said. “I put it on for a reason – this is where we want to be.”

Whether inspired by the coach’s subliminal message or not, the Raiders made it through the first stage of postseason play when they swept Weaver and Wellborn in three sets to win the Class 3A, Area 10 title in their own gym.

Both Pleasant Valley and Wellborn advance to the North Super Regional at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville Friday. PV will play Area 13 runner-up Sand Rock at 4:15 p.m., while Wellborn will draw Area 13 champion Geraldine at 6:45.

The Raiders have been back to the state tournament since the year Bryant’s shirt represented, but the coach chose that particular one because its predominant color is PV Columbia blue and that year “we had to play our tails off” to make it.

“I was looking through my shirts and I thought, yeah, I’m wearing that one,” she continued. “I almost didn’t wear it. We want another shirt. I want another state tournament shirt. I’m tired of wearing this one.”

Bryant didn’t tell her team her reason for wearing the shirt until after the match. Some of the players, like senior outside hitter Taylor Cochran, thought it simply the shirt she wore to work.

“I noticed it, because I don’t think she’s worn that shirt this year, but it never registered with me that it was a state (tournament) shirt,” said Kaylee Benefield, a senior who delivered the clinching point. “After she told us, it really makes sense because she’s always pushing us to do our best and visual things always help us.”

The Raiders (25-17) ran through their two matches fairly quickly. They were led in the championship match by tournament MVP Cochran’s 11 kills in the final home match of her career. She was joined on the all-tournament team by teammates Anna Bryant (four aces, 23 assists), Abby Hedgepath (seven digs) and Benefield. Jordan Moorer had seven kills and seven digs.

Wellborn’s Marey-anna Woodard had five kills and two aces, while Annalaya Smith had 11 assists. They, too, were on the all-tournament team.

Although the Panthers have won only about a dozen matches this season, they have been playing better of late and are excited about reaching the next stage.

“It’s a new day,” coach Brenda Vinson said. “We’re playing better and just believing you can win and going out and giving your all. We’ve kind of hit a rhythm and started building some confidence, understanding we can play better and better than what we thought. We just have to go out and play our best ball every day, play as a team and have fun.”

The rest of the all-tournament team included Wellborn’s Haley Shaw, Carlie Flowers and Ashlynne Rivers of Piedmont, and Weaver’s Keara Scott.