By CHARLES RICHARDS
eParisExtra.com
Paris Junior College’s volleyball team has won 13 of its last 14 games and will attempt to avenge its only conference loss at 6 p.m. today at the Hunt Center against Tyler Junior College.
The Lady Dragons – 18-6 overall and 3-1 at the mid-point of Region 14 play — are ranked No. 17 among the nation’s junior college teams. The visiting Apache Ladies are 17-2 and 4-0.
It will be a Breast Cancer Awareness game. The Lady Dragons will be wearing pink socks.
Four weeks ago today, PJC won the first set 25-19 against Tyler – at the time ranked No. 1 in the nation – but the Apache Ladies came back to win the second set 25-16 to tie the match. Each of the next two sets went the distance, Tyler winning both by a 25-23 score.
“We have been preparing for them. The match at Tyler was anybody’s game. Our girls are ready to play them again. They’re definitely ready., and we’re expecting an intense match,” PJC coach Justin Maness said Tuesday.
“We watched film of (Tyler) today. They are big. They’re going to get their kills. They are going to get their blocks,” Maness added. “If we execute – you know, if we do the small things, everything else will fall in place.”
It’s important for the Lady Dragons to also get their kills and their blocks.
“The key to getting our kills against Tyler is going to be keeping our offense back, keeping them guessing. If we set the ball high to one hitter, their blockers may get there. If we send multiple hitters in and get the blockers split, that’s what we’re looking for,” he said.
Today’s game is the next-to-last home game for the Lady Dragons. They won’t return again to the Hunt Center for three weeks – an Oct. 24 date here against Trinity Valley in the last regular season game of the year.
PJC will be in a three-way match Saturday at Brookhaven College in Dallas and at Eastfield College in Dallas one week from Saturday. Then come Region 14 matches at Panola College in Carthage on Oct. 17 and at Navarro College in Corsicana on Oct. 20.
The Region 14 tournament is Nov. 1-4 on the Lee College campus in Baytown among the top four teams from the North and South zones.
The higher the finish in conference play, the weaker the opponent will be in the conference tournament. The No. 1 seed n each zone will play the No. 4 seed in the other zone, and the No. 2 seeds in each zone will play the No. 3 seeds in the other zone.
That’s especially important this year in the North Zone, since the No. 1 team in the nation is San Jacinto College, which has won 22 of its 23 matches and figures to be the No. 1 seed in the South Zone.
Blinn, another South Zone team, is 15-4 and ranked No. 12 nationally.
At the halfway point of league play, Tyler is 4-0, Paris is 3-1, and Panola College, Trinity Valley Community College, and Navarro College are all 1-3.
Charles Richards Charles Richards moved to Paris in 2004 after retiring from a 40-year career in journalism – the last 26 years as a news writer and sports writer with The Associated Press in Dallas and Washington, D.C. In mid-2004, The Paris News coaxed him out of retirement, and he began covering the police, court and regional beat for The Paris News. Then in early 2005, he was switched to coverage of a sharply divided Paris City Council. He was appointed by the City Council in 2006 to the 12-member City Charter Review Commission, which extensively rewrote the outmoded document. His writing awards include two first-place awards in statewide competition for feature writing. The most recent was his 2005 story on a Paris doctor’s startling use of leeches in a successful attempt to re-attach a man’s severed ear. Over his career, Richards’ interview subjects include Alabama Gov. George Wallace, President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush, David Koresh, Arnold Palmer, Muhammad Ali and numerous other political and sports figures. He is an alumnus of Texas Tech, where he was editor of the school newspaper. He lives in Paris with his wife, Barbara, who is retired after 30 years as a teacher and high school counselor.
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