It’s how you finish
- Updated: August 21, 2021
Jacksonville, Alexandria looking at things differently after final-match results in Carostrong Tournament; Donoho wins Curry tournament
| CAROSTRONG TOURNAMENT | WL | MATCH RESULTS | |
| Plainview | 3-0 | def. Jacksonville, 25-19, 25-16; def. Springville, 25-23, 25-18; def. Alexandria, 25-19, 25-18. | |
| Alexandria | 2-1 | def. Springville, 25-12, 25-19; def. Jacksonville, 25-21, 25-17; lost to Plainview, 25-19, 25-18 | |
| Jacksonville | 1-2 | def. Springville, 25-11, 25-22; lost to Plainview, 25-19, 25-16; lost to Alexandria, 25-21, 25-17 | |
| Springville | 0-3 | lost to Alexandria, 25-12, 25-19; lost to Plainview, 25-23, 25-18; lost to Jacksonville, 25-11, 25-22 |
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
JACKSONVILLE – There’s really no science to support it, but it’s a safe bet a volleyball team’s assessment of its performance in a tournament is in direct correlation to the way it plays in its last match of the day.
Take Saturday’s Carostrong Tournament, for example.
Host Jacksonville won only one of its three matches against a stacked field, but it won the last one so at the end of the day the Golden Eagles were feeling pretty good about themselves.
Alexandria, meanwhile, won twice, but lost its final match to 2020 Class 3A runner-up Plainview in the battle of unbeatens so the Lady Cubs weren’t feeling quite the same despite a better record.
“You always want to end on a win,” Jacksonville coach David Clark said. “It’s tough when you lose the last one
“As many years as I’ve played in tournaments and stuff and were fortunate enough to get to the finals, that’s a great achievement but you lose in the finals and you almost feel like it’s a letdown.”
Plainview went 3-0 – beating Jacksonville, Springville and Alexandria in straight sets – to win the day. Alexandria went 2-1 with straight-set wins over Springville and Jacksonville. Jacksonville beat Springville, also in straight sets, to get away with at least one win.
Both Jacksonville and Alexandria are relatively young teams trying to find their way during this early stage of the season. The Golden Eagles have three regulars who saw significant time last year, the Lady Cubs two.
Jacksonville was hurt the most in its first two matches by an inability to do things consistently enough to limit their opponents’ runs. The Golden Eagles limited those runs to three or four points at a time in their third match, reducing their sense of chasing.
“It was a great day to figure things out,” Clark said.
The Lady Cubs saw a lot of good things in their first two matches, but that inconsistency reared its head against Plainview. They were tied in the middle of both sets, then the Lady Bears pulled away down the stretch, using a 10-2 run to take control of the first set and 10-3 run to close out the match.
“We have to learn how to have consistency.,” Alexandria coach Whitney Welch said. “We don’t have that yet, so it’s going to be really important for us to grow every single day this season. Hopefully we have some good culture in the program and we can rise to the occasion as the season goes on. We’ve got to learn to finish. We didn’t finish today.”
Carostrong Tournament
ALEXANDRIA 2, JACKSONVILLE 0
(25-21, 25-17)
KILLS – Alexandria: Kailey Dickerson 5, Kandyn Blankenship 7, Blakeley Mobbs 1, Lexi Weber 6, Crossley Sparks 1, Devan White 2; Jacksonville: Molly 1, Caitlin Clark 3, Aly Harris 4, Chloe Fuller 2, Camryn Stone 2, Jules Grass 1.
ASSISTS – Alexandria: Crossley Sparks 15, Devan White 2; Jacksonville: Caitlin Clark 1, Jules Grass 1, Tori Moses 1.
ACES – Alexandria: Kandyn Blankenship 2, Crossley Sparks 2, Ava Johnson 1; Jacksonville: Abby Wilczek 1, Caitlin Clark 1, Chloe Fuller 2.
DIGS – Alexandria: Kailey Dickerson 8, Kandyn Blankenship 7, Lexi Weber 2, Crossley Sparks 6, Devan White 5, Ava Johnson 8; Jacksonville: Caitlin Clark 1, Chloe Fuller 1, Tori Moses 4.
BLOCKS – Alexandria: Kailey Dickerson 1; Jacksonville: Molly Wilson 1, Aly Harris 2, Camryn Stone 1, Jules Grass 1.
(Alexandria stats)
ALEXANDRIA 2, SPRINGVILLE 0
(25-12, 25-19)
KILLS – Kailey Dickerson 2, Kandyn Blankenship 2, Blakeley Mobbs 3, Lexi Weber 7.
ASSISTS – Crossley Sparks 14
ACES – Kailey Dickerson 1, Lexi Weber 2, Crossley Sparks 2, Ashley Wells 1.
DIGS – Kailey Dickerson 2, Kandyn Blankenship 5, Lexi Weber 3, Crossley Sparks 2, Ana Johnson 2.
BLOCKS – Kailey Dickerson 1.
PLAINVIEW 2, ALEXANDRIA 0
(25-19, 25-18)
KILLS – Kailey Dickerson 5, Kandyn Blankenship 2, Blakeley Mobbs 2, Lexi Weber 7, Crossley Sparks 2, Brie Troup 1.
ASSISTS – Lexi Weber 1, Crossley Sparks 12.
ACES – Devan White 2, Blakeley Mobbs 2.
DIGS – Kailey Dickerson 5, Kandyn Blankenship 7, Crossley Sparks 2, Devan White 6, Ava Johnson 1.
BLOCKS – Lexi Weber 2, Brie Troup 1.
(Jacksonville stats)
JACKSONVILLE 2, SPRINGVILLE 0
(25-11, 25-22)
KILLS – Molly Wilson 3, Caitlin Clark 5, Aly Harris 5, Chloe Fuller 1, Camryn Stone 1, Jules Grass 1.
ASSISTS – Aly Harris 1, Chloe Fuller 1, Jules Grass 1, Tori Moses 3.
ACES – Molly Wilson 1, Caitlin Clark 2, Tori Moses 1.
DIGS – Caitlin Clark 6, Aly Harris 1, Chloe Fuller 1, Tori Moses 1.
BLOCKS – Molly Wilson 1, Aly Harris 2, Jules Grass 1.
PLAINVIEW 2, JACKSONVILLE 0
(25-19, 25-16)
KILLS – Molly Wilson 1, Caitlin Clark 3, Aly Harris 4, Chloe Fuller 1, Jules Grass 1, Tori Moses 1.
ASSISTS – Caitlin Clark 1, Aly Harris 1, Tori 1.
ACES – Abby Wilczek 2, Caitlin Clark 1, Tori Moses 2.
DIGS – Caitlin Clark 2, Aly Harris 1, Chloe Fuller 2.
BLOCKS – Jules Grass 1.
Donoho wins Curry tournament
CURRY – The Donoho volleyball team proved something to themselves and coach Jamie Clendenin, looking at mid-season form in winning the Smith Lake Invitational without dropping a set.
The Lady Falcons, who tuned up for the event with a season-opening sweep of Weaver on Thursday, beat Addison in the semifinals 25-20, 25-23 and took down host Curry in the finals 25-22, 25-20.
They beat Marion County (25-19, 25-21), Lindsay Lane (25-20, 25-20) and Meek (25-14, 25-17) in pool play, then beat Tuscaloosa County in their first bracket match (25-15, 25-15).
Lily Grace Draper had 52 kills in the tournament, Maggie Wakefield had 49 kills, 13 blocks and 34 digs, Sam Wakefield had 134 assists and Naira Rehman had 109 digs and seven aces.
“I think we’re playing better now than we did at the end of last season and hopefully we’ll get better,” Clendenin said. “We consistently got better throughout the entire day, which is what you want to see.”
The Lady Falcons appeared in trouble in the second set against Addison, trailing 14-7 and 23-18, but they dug down to rally for the victory. They burned both of their timeouts early in the set.
“I think it’s pretty big,” Clendenin said. “Some of the girls before we played Addison were pretty nervous. We watched the game before and they and Westminster were going back and forth. But I’ve told them all year I don’t care who’s on the court, play your game. It was huge not only to see we can do it, but we can finish, too. We can play with the big dogs.”
In case you didn’t know, the Lady Falcons (7-0) are one of the big dogs, too.
Lake Smith Invitational
(Donoho six-match totals)
KILLS – Lily Grace Draper 52, Maggie Wakefield 49, Mary Marshall Perry 14, Estella Connell 20, Yana Osovska 11, Sam Wakefield 9.
ASSISTS – Sam Wakefield 134, Naira Rehman 17, Ayesha Siddiqua 13.
ACES – Lily Grace Draper 5, Maggie Wakefield 3, Mary Marshall Perry 2, Estella Connell 1, Yana Osovska 3, Sam Wakefield 2, Naira Rehman 7, Hannah Sprayberry 1.
DIGS – Lily Grace Draper 22, Maggie Wakefield 34, Mary Marshall Perry 3, Yana Osovska 7, Estella Connell 2, Sam Wakefield 42, Naira Rehman 109, Ayesha Siddiqua 21, Hannah Sprayberry 3.
BLOCKS – Lily Draper 2, Maggie Wakefield 13, Mary Marshall Perry 11, Estella Connell 11.
Cover photo: The Donoho volleyball team displays the championship trophy after winning the Smith Lake Invitational.
Pleasant Valley Tri-Match
JACKSONVILLE – Pleasant Valley opened its season by splitting a pair of matches with Spring Garden and Oxford. The Lady Raiders were swept by Spring Garden 3-0 and held off Oxford 3-2.
Oxford fell to 0-4 on its season with losses to Spring Garden (3-0) and Pleasant Valley, but the Lady Jackets didn’t go down without a fight.
They rallied from being down two sets to none to force a fifth set with PV, but dropped the tiebreaker 15-6.
Abbie Mitchell had 21 kills and 10 digs in the two matches to lead the Lady Jackets. Kara King and Shay Montgomery had 14 kills each and Adrionna Foster had 43 assists.
SPRING GARDEN 3, OXFORD 0 (25-14, 25-21, 25-13)
PLEASANT VALLEY 3, OXFORD 2 (25-18, 25-23, 16-25, 22-25, 15-6)
SPRING GARDEN 3, PLEASANT VALLEY 0
(Pleasant Valley two-match totals)
KILLS – Lily Henry 16, Rylee Haynes 15, Allie Bryant 13, Maddie Schwabe 4, Tori Turner 3, Baylee Willis 4..
ASSISTS – Rylee Haynes 34, Allie Bryant 22, Maddie Schwabe 2, Tori Turner 1.
ACES – Lily Henry 4, Rylee Haynes 3, Allie Bryant 1, Maddie Schwabe 2, Madi Hay 3, Rebekah Gannaway 6..
DIGS – Lily Henry 29, Rylee Haynes 18, Allie Bryant 30, Maddie Schwabe 29, Tori Turner 1, Madi Hay 15, Rebekah Gannaway 20.
BLOCKS – Lily Henry 6, Rylee Hayes 1, Allie Bryant 2, Tori Turne 7, Baylee Willis 4..
(Oxford two-match totals)
KILLS – Kara King 14, Adrionna Foster 5, Abbie Mitchell 21, Shay Montgomery 14.
ASSISTS – Adrionna Foster 43.
DIGS – Adrionna Foster 10, Ashley Paulson 31, Abbie Mitchell 10, Cohlee Boone 12.
BLOCKS – Shay Montgomery 5.
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