Travis continues to be the top dog in District 23-5A volleyball. After the two-week layoff due to Hurricane Ike, the Tigers didn’t skip a beat in a three-game sweep of Fort Bend Marshall, 25-18, 25-19, 25-14 at Wheeler Fieldhouse.

      (Austin VS.

          The long break didn't derail the Cypress Falls volleyball team. The Eagles (14-7, 1-0) got things rolling Tuesday night with a 25-18, 25-20, 25-12 sweep of Cypress Ridge to start District 15-5A play.

      Things were flowing right at the Delmar Fieldhouse Wednesday night for the Waltrip volleyball team, which opened District 21-4A play by sweeping Sharpstown 25-11, 25-19, 25-9. Leading the Waltrip offense attack was junior Kourtney Martinez, who had a team-high 13 kills and three aces.   "It's very important" to open district play with a win, Martinez said.

  (Clements VS.

  Kingwood volleyball coach Ashley Earhart’s grand design for her team’s game against Deer Park Tuesday night didn’t exactly play out the way she wanted it too, but it was pretty darn close. Earhart entered the non-district home game determined to showcase her team’s defensive talent as a way to strengthen her offense. She got what she wanted in the end, though it was the play of her deep and talented offense that helped the Mustangs (11-10) pave the way to a three game sweep of the Deer, 25-17, 25-11, 25-15. “I thought we had put way too much emphasis on our front line early in the season,” Earhart said.

    The Stratford volleyball team was in near-perfect form Tuesday afternoon, cruising past visiting Seven Lakes 25-11, 25-12, 25-13 in a non-district match to improve to 16-5. Leading the charge for Stratford was Jennifer Jordan with 15 kills and Mary Ellen Luck with 11.

      The Memorial volleyball team needed a spark that could set them up for a big season.   The Mustangs may have gotten it from Cinco Ranch, the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last season. The Mustangs pulled out a tough four-game win at Cinco Ranch on Wednesday night, as all four games were nail-biters.

      Despite dropping from 5A to 4A, the Westbury volleyball team continues to prove itself a tough team, no matter the classification. The Rebels looked strong in a three-game sweep at Northbrook Tuesday night, winning 25-17, 26-24, 25-18 and improving to 2-1 on the young season. Westbury got strong hitting from Morganne Cameron and Miriclle Jones to hold off a couple of Raider rallies in the second game and to put the match away in the third game. “I keep my girls consistent, no matter who we play,” Westbury head coach Davon Spates said.

    Down 8-4 in the fifth and final game against MacArthur Tuesday, North Shore volleyball coach Dawn Gutierrez called for a critical timeout.   She said she called it because she needed it to calm the nerves of her three playmakers, Whitney Johnson, Chandra Jones and Valencia Roy. What she said to the trio definitely paid dividends, because the three-year senior letterwinners helped the Mustangs run off 10 straight points in game five to pull out a 15-9 victory, capping a 23-25, 25-10, 25-17, 11-25, 15-9 win in a non-district game.

   Photos by Graham Cull   Second Baptist volleyball coach Perry Robinson said before Tuesday’s district meeting with Awty International School how glad he was that TAPPS district play was finally starting.

    And then there was one. San Antonio Reagan turned in a solid gold performance Saturday to capture the newly christened Nike Volleyball Classic championship, defeating cross town rival San Antonio O’Connor two games to one at Pearland High School. The Rattlers won the first game 25-18, lost the second 27-25 and captured the third 25-19 to win the 76-team tournament, the first to be sponsored by the shoe company. Reagan improved to 25-1 overall and 3-0 against O'Connor this season.

            Having ran the gamut against the area’s elite in the past week, the Pearland volleyball team was eager to strike a quick blow Thursday in the division play round of the Nike Volleyball Classic. The Oilers did just that, winning six sets and cruising to a 3-0 record in their home tournament, the 76-team event considered the largest prep tournament of its kind in the country. Pearland swept Alvin (25-13, 25-10) and Richland (25-7, 25-10) before surviving persistent New Braunfels 27-25, 25-23 at Pearland High School, closing on a 4-0 run. “A huge goal of this team is limiting the number of runs we give up,” Oilers coach John Turner said.

  Like many other volleyball coaches, Cinco Ranch’s Tammy Laurence is loathe to miss Pearland’s gigantic Labor Day weekend classic, known this year as the 2008 Nike Volleyball Classic. So she never has. The Cougars have competed in the event all eight years of their existence, and for most of that time they’ve been among the region’s elite.

    (Dulles VS.

Maybe she really was born with it. It’s not Maybelline.

Baytown Sterling seniors Alyssa Cotton and Priscilla Massengale were lethal at the net Tuesday night as the Rangers swept visiting Nimitz, 25-12, 25-8, 25-12 in a non-district match.

    The Eisenhower volleyball team dominated visiting Dekaney Tuesday night, sweeping to a 25-7, 26-15, 25-15 win in a non-district game.   In all three sets, Eisenhower dominated DeKaney from start to finish with a total team effort. Eagles coach Jocelyn Adams was especially thrilled about her team's strong concentration. "Our team played very well today," she said.

          Hard work and practice makes perfect, or so we’re told. The Westfield volleyball team did their best to live up to that saying after sweeping Lamar in the Aldine ISD tournament championship game 25-19, 25-15, Saturday afternoon at Nimitz.

    (Championship: Cy-Woods VS.

  Amy Moyer teams with, among others, Samantha O’Malley and Sarah Behrens to form something of a formidable front row for the Fort Bend Dulles volleyball team. By the fourth set of Friday night’s game against Memorial, Mustangs coach Beth Gammill had seen enough of Moyer, the Vikings’ 5-foot-11 junior outside hitter. So she moved her own middle threat, 6-2 senior middle hitter Shawn Hindman, to the outside to counter Moyer. The move paid immediate and plentiful dividends, as the Mustangs turned the tables on the scrappy Vikings and closed out a 25-16, 25-23, 23-25, 25-10 victory at Don Coleman Coliseum. “I think when we moved Shawn out there Moyer got scared of a bigger block and started tipping more,” Memorial’s Paige Johnson said.

    After moving into the consolation bracket of the Spring Branch ISD tournament Thursday, Cypress Falls got a big confidence boost Friday night when they upset previously undefeated Katy in three straight games, 29-27, 26-24, 25-16.

  Lamar and Hightower advanced in first-round games of the Aldine ISD volleyball tournament Thursday at Nimitz High School. The Redskins came out swinging hard and fast against MacArthur, and quickly won the first game from mainly tipping.

      In its first year as a varsity team in 2007, Fort Bend Travis finished fourth in a very competitive District 23-5A and got a playoff spot.

      (SBISD Tournament) Cy-Woods VS.

  The Kingwood Mustangs beat the Cypress Falls Eagles in five games Tuesday night in non-district volleyball action at the Kingwood Park High School gymnasium.

    Throughout moments of Katy Taylor’s three-game sweep of Cypress Creek Tuesday night, it looked like the Mustangs were coming together as a formidable team that could be in the mix for not only a District 17-5A championship, but a strong run in the playoffs.

          In Jennifer Jordan’s experience, the best way to compete with the Clear Creek volleyball team – if not defeat them – is counter their power with some slight of hand, namely tipping. Unfortunately for Jordan and her Stratford teammates, by the time they managed to control any aspect of their match with the visiting Wildcats Tuesday night, they were more than a set behind and in a hole too deep to escape. Clear Creek, believed by many to be the favorites in Region III, thoroughly dominated from the outset and cruised to a 25-11, 25-21, 25-13 non-district victory. Nebraska-bound outside hitter Megan Pendergast had 11 kills and junior Madeline Gaffney added 10 for Creek (7-1), which lost to Cy-Fair in the regional final last year. “They run a really fast offense and that’s what killed us,” Jordan said.

      Don’t bother pointing out that the Katy volleyball team’s three-set win against Cinco Ranch in Saturday’s Katy ISD Tournament championship game didn’t come when it counts most.   This wasn’t a district game, but it didn’t have to be.   The Tigers defeated the eight-time defending district champion Cougars for the first time since 2004, surviving a 25-21, 24-26, 26-24 nailbiter at the Merrell Center that may have been better suited for Oct.

  Has the crown passed from the state semifinalists to a startup program in Cy-Fair ISD volleyball?   Probably not – at least for now – but the Cypress Woods volleyball team served notice Saturday that they’re more than a passing fancy in the area.

        Slowly but surely, the Memorial volleyball team is starting the 2008 season playing like the same team that made it to state two years ago. Memorial looked strong in a three-game sweep Friday at Mayde Creek, defeating the Rams 25-16, 26-24, 25-12.

            Maybe the biggest advantage Bellaire’s volleyball team had late in its five-set win Friday night was complete beyond their control. The Cardinals, eight-time defending district champions in Houston ISD but still getting to know each other on the court, played only one game before their visit to Spring Woods.

  Cypress Woods won its first two matches in the Cy-Fair ISD tournament Thursday at Cypress Creek, sweeping both Atascocita and Klein Oak.

          Finally Chiney Ogwumike can stand out on her own.

        The longer Tuesday night’s volleyball match progressed, the more frequently Waltrip’s veteran front line forced Northbrook into what will be scored as unforced errors. Capitalizing on a series of runs, the Rams’ front row of Ashley Kerl, Jamie Coomes and Kourtney Martinez combined for 28 kills to fuel a 25-17, 25-19, 25-13 road win in the season opener for both teams. Coomes, a senior, had 11 kills to pace the effort.

 After making a strong run to the Region III-5A semifinals, Cinco Ranch has a strong group returning, but will also have to work in some players that don’t have much varsity experience into the fold.  The Cougars lost 10 players to graduation (including all-district players like Ali Becker and Mary Beth Allcorn), but have eight players returning from last year’s roster, so head coach Tammy Laurence hopes that the mix of youth and experience can bring more success that the program has seen in the last three years.“Our team’s attitude has been very, very pleasant and very exciting,” Laurence said.

  Two years removed from an incredible run to the state semifinals, the Memorial volleyball team looks to reach that lofty goal again in 2008.

  After a long summer, it’s time to hit the hardwood for some volleyball. The Houston area is a hotspot for volleyball, and the 2008 season looks to be a really good one. Even though the recent UIL realignment moving the Cy-Fair ISD teams to Region II, the race to state in Region III will be even tougher.

  Even though most of her players attended team camp last week, or maybe because of it, Stratford volleyball coach Becky Palermo put the Spartans to a test in their first practice Monday. Instead of concentrating solely on fundamental drills, Palermo decided to start a few 6-on-6 games to gauge their endurance. “I went backwards,” Palermo said.

  Memorial volleyball player Sidney Stewart has changed her 'Stangs.   Stewart, a three-year letterwinner for Memorial and a member of the Texas Tornadoes club team, signed her national letter of intent Wednesday to play at SMU.

{mp3}VBDS_20105{/mp3} The best volleyball teams in Texas have made their way to Houston and are competing for the Tour of Texas title at the Texas Tornado Facility Saturday and Sunday.

  Stratford alumna and now University of Pennsylvania volleyball player Julia Swanson was recently announced as the 2007 Ivy League Rookie of the Year.

Making the All-District Team is an honor for the individual athletes who have been standouts throughout the season. In order to make the team you have to be voted on by coaches, along with the all-district vote the coaches also vote on District MVP, Newcomer of the year, and position standouts. Honorees are as follows:   District 19-5A  MVP: Sidney Stewart, Memorial Outstanding Setter: Valerie Noel, Stratford Outstanding Hitter: Jennifer Jordan, Stratford Outstanding Defensive Player: Shadara Hampton, MacArthur Co-Outstanding Libero: Jordan Foley, Stratford and Nicole Naidus, Memorial   First Team Shawn Hindman, Memorial Paige Johnson, Memorial Kirby Monson, Memorial Katie Wendell, Memorial Mary Ellen Luck, Stratford Ashley Nunn, Stratford Karensa Beckford, Eisenhower Jamie Johnson, Eisenhower Clarissa Moore, Eisenhower Sade Kelly, Nimitz Brittney Thomas, MacArthur Olivia Cortez, Spring Woods Second Team Nicole Bradley, Memorial Colleen Mattingley, Memorial Kendall McCord, Stratford Emily Pence, Stratford Jazmine Wilson, Eisenhower Megan Hamilton, Nimitz Bianca Chapman, MacArthur Denise Duplechin, MacArthur Ocatvia Cortez, Spring Woods Erica Wheat, Spring Woods Erika Montieo, Northbrook Keoshia Harris, Aldine District 18-5A Most Valuable Player: Ali Becker, Cinco Ranch (Univ.

          District 17-5A and Region III champions, the Cy-Fair Bobcats, played in the semifinal round of the 2007 State Tournament against defending champion Amarillo Friday night in San Marcos.

This year’s state volleyball tournament participants include many that have been to the tournament in the past and a few first-timers. Conference 5A, featuring two relative veterans and a first-timer, is no different. Cy-Fair (37-2) plays defending champion Amarillo (44-1) in the second of two 5A semifinals at 7 p.m.

{mp3}071109-Cy-FairVB-Heather{/mp3}       The Cy-Fair Bobcats defeated Clear Creek in the Region III 5A Final, 25-12, 25-12, and 25-14 Saturday at the Campbell Center, clinching the Bobcats a spot in next weekend's state tournament in San Marcos.

      The Region III 5A semifinal between District 18-5A champions, Cinco Ranch and District 24-5A’s No.

          The Region III-5A volleyball semifinals took place Friday night at the Campbell Center.

{mp3}DS_20079{/mp3} The Merrell Center hosted the Region 3-5A quarterfinals Tuesday night, and the Cy-Fair Bobcats dominated the Memorial Mustangs with a 25-4, 25-14, 25-21 victory.

{mp3}CincoRanchVB 200721106{/mp3}         The Cypress Woods volleyball team wore shirts during and after its Region3-5A quarterfinal Tuesday night saying “Got seniors? We don’t!” Try telling that to Cinco Ranch, which needed a marked step up in its defensive effort from the entire team – including its 10 seniors – to escape the Wildcats. Ali Becker had 13 kills and Lindsey Miller nine to pace the Cougars to a 27-25, 25-18, 25-18 victory at The Merrell Center in Katy and their first regional semifinal berth since 2003. The Cougars (33-8) needed a set to figure out the Wildcats, who thrived off a quick game but couldn’t overcome Becker, Miller and Jennifer Sanders’ front-row dominance. “There were some nerves out there,” Cinco Ranch coach Tammy Laurence said.