Geneva volleyball wins another WAC championship

Make room for another Wiregrass Athletic Conference volleyball tournament trophy in the Geneva trophy case.

The Panthers earned their fourth title in five years and a second straight Saturday, downing Houston Academy in a hard-fought finals, 21-25, 25-16, 15-12, at Houston Academy’s Killingsworth Gym.

Geneva (12-1) went 4-0 at the tournament, beating Daleville on Thursday and Ashford 25-17, 25-15 and Houston Academy 25-15, 25-11 on Saturday before the championship.

“I am surprised (to win it) after losing seven players off last year’s team and only having three players returning with any varsity court experience,” Geneva head coach Susan Moore said.

“We start a freshman setter, a sophomore setter and basically we are learning how to mesh a whole new group together. I have been pleasantly surprised at the whole year.”

Houston Academy (12-8) finished as runner-ups for the second straight year after winning the title in 2006. The Raiders went 3-2 at the tourney, beating Houston County on Thursday then Dale County 25-20, 25-11 and G.W. Long 25-16, 25-16 on Saturday.

“We were out five starters (injuries, grandparents funerals) and we had some real inexperience on the court, but we played well,” Houston Academy head coach Hannah Braswell said. “We knew we would have some up and down times, but we continued to go with our strategy for this tournament — that we would stay focused and fight for every point. That is what we did.

“We didn’t expect to get this far. We thought we would be out earlier, but the girls came out and showed what they were made out of. They played with their heart and played as a team.”

The teams played on almost even terms in the first game, nearly swapping points early. It was tied at 20 when a Geneva player went into the net for a violation, making it 21-20 HA.

HA’s Caitlin Stone then earned a kill to put the Raiders up two.

After both teams scored a point, Stone delivered a kill then a block to seal up the HA win, 25-21.

The match, though, turned in the second game.

With the scored tied at 2-2, Geneva rattled off 13 straight points to build a 15-2 lead.

Shae Ware, who served on 12 of the 13 points, had two aces in the run, while Lacresha Fikes had three kills and Kasey Carswell a kill and a block.

“That was straight serving by Shae Ware,” Moore said. “I told them that they (the Raiders) were not serve receiving well and if you would serve the ball over with a little bit of force, we could get ahead of them quick and change the momentum.”

Geneva maintained control of the game the rest of the way, winning 25-16.

The third game was like the first one with the margin never reaching more than three.

It was tied at 11 when an HA kill attempt went out of bounds, pushing Geneva up 12-11.

The Raiders then couldn’t return a cross-court kill by Whitney Hornsby and Marisa Jenkins followed with an ace to make it 14-11.

A serve out of bounds kept HA in it, but Fikes delivered a kill off a Jenkins assist to end the match.

Fikes, the tournament MVP, earned 14 kills and two blocks in the championship. She finished the four-match tournament with 42 kills.

Jenkins earned three kills and 10 assists in the title match, Carswell had seven kills and eight assists, Macy Duncan nine digs and S’hena Myhand and Ware both had three kills.

For the tournament, Ware served on 39 points, Jenkins delivered 34 assists, Duncan had 24 digs, Carswell 19 assists and 13 kills and Myhand earned 11 kills.

Houston Academy was led in the championship by Stone, who had nine kills, four blocks and 12 digs. Mary Katherine Smith had three aces and 12 assists
and Ellise McEntire had seven kills, three aces and three digs.

Duncan, Ware and Jenkins were all named to the all-tournament team as were Stone, Smith and McEntire.

Also making all-tournament were Ashford’s Tanesha Jones, G.W. Long’s Kirstie Ross, Cottonwood’s Jacie Habron, Headland’s Kendretta Thornton, Wicksburg’s Tori McNeal, Daleville’s Ashley Buckhalter, Rehobeth’s Madison Morrow and Houston County’s Kasmira Lucas.