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Oxford top seed

Lady Jackets’ undefeated record against county teams earn them the nod; possible venue change

By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today

PIEDMONT — Being undefeated against county competition through this first segment of the season earned Oxford the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Calhoun County volleyball tournament.

Head-to-head success determined the next three seeds that earned byes into the Oct. 6 quarterfinals, and the rest of the seeds fell basically in line.

UPDATE: The county principals Thursday voted to move the varsity tournament to Alexandria.

The Lady Jackets (13-10) sealed the top seed with Tuesday’s three-set sweep of Pleasant Valley. It left them 7-0 against county competition.

“I knew we hadn’t lost to anybody, but I wasn’t sure what everyone else’s county record was,” said Oxford assistant coach Rachel Poe, who represented the Yellow Jackets at the seeding meeting.

Alexandria (12-7, 7-1), defending champion Pleasant Valley (14-7, 3-2) and Faith Christian (18-4, 7-1) grabbed the next three seeds respectively. The Lady Cubs beat PV and the Lady Raiders beat Faith.

The Lady Lions did, however, receive consideration for the No. 2 seed. One of their victories came over a No. 1 team in the state.

“That was cool,” Faith coach Justin Kisor said. “But when you play somebody head-to-head you have no fight (in the seedings debate); they beat us head-to-head.”

The remaining seeds are Donoho, the winningest team in the county (20-11); Sacred Heart (14-11), Wellborn (5-6), Saks (11-10), Weaver (14-9), Jacksonville (5-12), White Plains (9-11), Piedmont (10-16), Ohatchee (4-15), JCA (4-0) and Anniston (0-2). The records have a chance to be appreciably different than the seeds when the tournament opens Oct. 6.

Oxford counts Alexandria, PV, Donoho and Sacred Heart among their in-county wins this season. The Lady Jackets won’t play Faith until next Tuesday in a tri-match at Southside.

“We want to play well against any team that we play,” Poe said. “Of course the girls get excited (when they play a county team) because they have friends, a friendly rivalry, with girls they play club with or something like that.

“We want to play our top game regardless who’s on the other side of the net, but the girls have relationships with people in the county, so that means something to them.”

The tournament is scheduled to be played in its entirety at Jacksonville High School. There is a possibility, however, it could shift to Alexandria’s air-conditioned gym (site of the County Junior High Tournament Sept. 27-29), pending consultation with Alexandria’s administration and subsequent vote of the county principals.

CALHOUN COUNTY VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT

(Overall, county records through Sept. 19)
Oct. 6, Site TBA
First-round games
No. 13 Ohatchee (4-15, 2-6) vs. No. 12 Piedmont (10-16, 3-11), 9 a.m. (C1)
No. 14 JCA (4-0, 0-0) vs. No. 11 White Plains (9-11, 4-7), 9 a.m. (C2)
No. 10 Jacksonville (5-12, 2-6) vs. No. 15 Anniston (0-2, 0-2), 9 a.m. (C3)
Second-round games
No. 8 Saks (11-10, 5-5) vs. No. 9 Weaver (14-9, 4-4), 10:30 a.m. (C1)
No. 5 Donoho (20-11, 7-8) vs. Ohatchee-Piedmont winner, 10:30 a.m. (C2)
No. 6 Sacred Heart (14-11, 8-4) vs. JCA-White Plains winner, 10:30 a.m. (C3)
No. 7 Wellborn (12-7, 5-6) vs. Jacksonville-Anniston winner, noon (C1)
Quarterfinals
No. 1 Oxford (13-10, 7-0) vs. Saks-Weaver winner, noon (C2)
No. 4 Faith Christian (18-4, 7-1) vs. Donoho/Ohatchee/Piedmont, noon (C3)
No. 3 Pleasant Valley (14-7, 3-2) vs. Sacred Heart/JCA/White Plains, 1:30 p.m. (C1)
No. 2 Alexandria (12-7, 7-1) vs. Wellborn/Jacksonville/Anniston, 1:30 p.m. (C2)
Semifinals
Court 1, 3 p.m.
Court 2, 3 p.m.

Oct. 8, Site TBA
Championship Match, 6 p.m.

CALHOUN COUNTY JR. HIGH TOURNAMENT

Sept. 27-29 at Alexandria
(Overall, county records through Sept. 19)
First-round games (Sept. 27)
No. 8 Sacred Heart (10-13, 9-9) vs. No. 9 Jacksonville (8-10, 4-9), 4 p.m. (C1)
No. 5 Alexandria (13-9, 7-8) vs. No. 12 Pleasant Valley (4-16, 2-9), 5:15 p.m. (C1)
No. 4 Oxford (13-11, 11-5) vs. No. 13 Saks (3-14, 1-12), 5:15 p.m. (C2)
No. 3 White Plains (13-5, 12-4) vs. No. 14 JCA (0-2, 0-0), 4 p.m. (C2)
No. 6 Weaver (13-7, 10-7) vs. No. 11 Faith Christian (5-11, 3-6), 5:15 p.m. (AMS)
No. 7 Wellborn (9-9, 9-7) vs. No. 10 Piedmont (11-12, 3-7), 4 p.m. (AMS)
No. 1 Ohatchee (26-1, 19-0) vs. Sacred Heart-Jacksonville winner, 6:30 p.m. (C1)
No. 2 Donoho (21-7, 14-1) vs. Wellborn-Piedmont winner, 6:30 p.m. (C2)

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