Summer volleyball takes off across Jackson County

By SHELIA MADER
Floridan Correspondent
Published: June 10, 2008

Marianna High School volleyball coach Belinda Christopher tipped off the summer season with seven teams taking the court.

The summer volleyball program is running two games simultaneously on half courts with a 55-minute running clock.

Each team plays until time expires getting in as many games as possibly during the allotted time.

In game one on court one Marianna held on to defeat Sneads two out of three games. Game one went to Sneads 25-15 before Marianna bounced back to take the next two games 25-19 and 20-14. On court two at the same time, it was Altha taking care of the Marianna Junior Varsity squad in all three games. Game one was 25-12, with game two 25-13 and 25-19 in the final game of the match.

At 6 it was Liberty County handing the Marianna junior varsity three straight losses, 25-16, 25-18 and 25-14. On court two at six, Marianna took two of three games from Blountstown. Game one was a 25-14 victory over the visiting Lady Tigers while Blountstown came back to defeat the Lady Bulldogs in game two 25-19. The Lady Dogs bounced back in game three with a 19-14 victory.

At 7 on court one, it was a close match in all three games with Blountstown taking two of the three from the Altha Lady Wildcats. Game one was an overtime 26-24 win for the Lady Tigers while Altha took game two 17-25. In the final game of the match, time shortened the game with Blountstown holding on to a 15-12 victory.

Court two at seven was Sneads over Liberty County in three games. Game one was 25-18, game two 25-14 and game three 25-20.

In the nightcap, the Lady Bulldogs JV team took all three games from the Altha Middle School squad. Alex Sanchez opened up the Lady Dogs scoring in game one’s 25-15 win with four straight service points to put Marianna up 4-0. Christina Wynn took over the serve and connected to make it a 10-2 game.

Kara Roberts picked up a service point before Brandi Middleton added two additional points. Tiffany Lawrence matched Sanchez with five points to put the Lady Dogs up 16-7. Kayla Robinson came on to pick up a couple of points putting the Marianna lead at 18-9. In the end, it was Middleton who closed out the game giving the Lady Bulldogs the 25-15 victory.

Marianna jumped out on the serve of Sanchez in game two with a 1-0 lead before Altha countered to make it a 1-1 game. The game remained close with neither team garnishing more than a five-point lead at any time. The first five-point lead for Marianna came off the serve of Caitlyn Shouse who made it a 12-8 game. With the game knotted at 21, overtime was more than a possibility. In the end it took an extra serve from Kayla Robinson to pick up the 26-24 victory for the Lady Dogs.

Game three was neck-in-neck through the first ten minutes of play before Marianna pulled away on the serves of Lawrence and Middleton to make it a 17-9 game. Roberts picked up four points during her serve to stretch the lead to 21-10. In the end it was Marianna over Altha 25-11.

Games are scheduled to continue each Monday night at the new Marianna High School gym with two games at five, six and seven. Monday, June 15 at five will be Sneads pitted against Blountstown on court one while Liberty County takes on Marianna on court two At six on court one will be Liberty County and Altha while court two will have Marianna team II and Blountstown. The nightcap games will be Marianna I versus Marianna II at 7 on court one while Altha will take on Sneads on court two.