Cougars senior girls look to build on home tournament

By Brady Grove, Times Reporter

Crowther Memorial Junior High School (CMJHS) hosted a senior girls volleyball tournament on Sept. 29, and although the local team was beaten in the first round of playoffs in two straight matches again Brooks, head coach Lindsay Walker was happy with the team’s effort.
“The experience is something the team can build on going into the rest of the season,” she said. “We have already seen tremendous growth in skill, communication and positioning so that was really good.”
The format of the tournament works like a marathon because every game is played in one day, creating a great deal of demand on a player’s stamina.
The Cougars played two sets each against the other three teams in their pool. The girls did this all between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. before playing in the playoffs two hours later. The Cougars went 2-4 in the round robin.
The rapid succession of matches in a tournament can wear players down quickly, but according to Walker, they are trying to battle through the endurance challenge.
“We preach the motto ‘practice like you want to play,’ so really setting that mentality that we will practice great things we will do in the tournament,” said Walker. “We do conditioning drills in practice to try and get them to go hard all day.”
According to Walker, the team plans on working on its serving and consistency, especially in the final points of the match.
“Volleyball is a team sport. You can’t have one star and win the game so you need to have that team mentality and everyone having each other’s backs and trust,” said Walker. “We have a great group of girls this year who are already like that with each other.”
The Cougars senior girls team will get another chance for revenge against Brooks when they host a tournament on Oct. 13.
The Cougars boys team will be hosting a tournament at CMJHS on the same date.