By Jack Walker
Staff Writer
Van Alstyne volleyball fans may consider last weekend's trip to Prosper for the 2010 North Texas Volleyball Classic a bit of a downer after the Lady Panthers managed only one win in six tries.
To paraphrase to old Master Card commercials, the experience was priceless.
Battling teams like Brewer, Fort Worth Dunbar and Little Elm should pay big dividends down the road as the Lady Panthers compete against Celina and Commerce in district play. The young team needs to get a measure of just what they have to do to be competitive against top-notch teams.
Melissa 29, Van Alstyne 27
Van Alstyne 25, Melissa 21
Van Alstyne 25, Melissa 23
In the tournament's best-of-three format, the Lady Panthers found themselves in the hole early against the Lady Cards.
After getting off to a nice start behind the play of Sam Hutchison, Lori Arion and Madeline Carroll, Melissa came storming back to make it a contest.
A soft shot that fell for Jenny Pickett had given Van Alstyne a 12-8 lead before Shelby Hill and Caitlin Jones began to knock down winners. With VA holding a three-point edge, two Lady Panthers miscues and a Jones kill knotted the game at 20 each. Another winner by Jones put the Lady Cardinals on top 24-23 before Hunter Offill sent a screamer to the short right corner for the game's sixth tie. A Hutchison kill locked it up at 27-27 before Hill sent in a cross court shot and a Lady Panther error game Melissa the game one win.
The Lady Cards led early in game two but a pair of service winners by Pickett and a shot by Hutchison that went through the Lady Cardinal block put VA on top 8-7. Rachel Perkins had a kill then an ace to bump the lead to four.
Melissa tied it at 16-16 then went on a run to get the lead up to 21-17. A soft shot that found the floor by Leslie Zielinski started a 6-0 Van Alstyne run and a kill by Hutchison made it a 25-21 win.
The deciding game was another back and forth drama as neither side could get a lead bigger than three points in the early going. After a Shelby Hill kill had tied the game at 16 each, Van Alstyne put together a run that stretched the lead to five. Carroll bumped home a winner and a Zielinski ace keyed that surge. Arion had a pair of kills sandwiched around a kill by Pickett to get it to match point and Perkins put one away in the right corner to get the Lady Panthers off to the good start in the tourney.
Gunter 25, Van Alstyne 13
Gunter 25, Van Alstyne 16
Gunter's all-district, all-everything performer Joey Bailey was just too tough to handle in this one. Bailey will be one of the five best hitters the Lady Panthers face all season and she was the catalyst in the sweep by the Lady Tigers.
Brewer 25, Van Alstyne 21
Brewer 25, Van Alstyne 20
The tournament program did not have any player names listed for the Brewer Lady Bears so we won't list any either.
Suffice to say they had some talented front line players as they swept the Lady Panthers in the final match on Friday they got off to a 4-1 lead, built it to 20-10 before Van Alstyne mounted a comeback.
Sam Hutchison blocked a shot for a point that started a 10-3 run. She re-directed a shot and Jenny Pickett sent in a winner from the service line. Back-to-back aces by Hunter Offill and an ace by Jessica Baker closed out the scoring as Brewer got the four-point win.
The Lady Bears got on top early in game two and kept the lead despite some inspired play by Van Alstyne
Baker had two kills in the early going and Arion and Hutchison came up with some timely winners down the stretch but they could never gain the lead as Brewer earned the sweep.
The Lady Panthers were very competitive in Saturday's bracket play even though they lost each of the three matches played.
After a road trip to Pottsboro the Lady Panthers will try to defend their 2009 championship finish in the Royse City Invitational. Play began yesterday as Van Alstyne played two class 5-A schools, Garland Naaman Forest and North Garland.