Hosting their annual tournament, the Columbia Wildcats had all the right moves Saturday to begin their volleyball season 2-0.
The Wildcats kicked off the Columbia Classic with a 2-0 (25-21, 25-19) sweep of Salem by playing with sound fundamentals. Abby Morris led the way with three kills and a block, Patrice Oatis had two aces and Janyia Willis had five assists.
In its second and final match of the day, Columbia lost the first set to West Marion 25-23 before rallying from seven points down to take the second set 26-24 and finishing off the third 15-11.
“It was very good to see actually them honestly get hit in the mouth and step back up, fight through it, take back the lead, win the game and come back and finish the third set without having a letdown,” head coach Scott Fitzgerald said.
Willis had three kills to pace the Wildcats, while Morris, Elisha Brown and Jalaysia Everett each had two. Everett also had eight digs and five aces, and Kaitlyn Fitzgerald had eight digs as well.
Coach Fitzgerald said a trio of players caught his eye during Columbia’s initial action.
“I think Kennedy Newsom came in during the second set of the West Marion game and settled them all down and got them back on track,” he said. “During the first set with Salem, I thought Abby Morris did a good job playing the net with blocking and everything. Elisha Brown did a good job of handling the ball in the first game in the back row and had a couple of good attacks.”
Fitzgerald added it was nice to get off to a 2-0 start, but there’s still plenty of work to be done.
“We executed the rotation pretty effectively. We still need to work on being more aggressive and work on our serving a little bit more,” he said.
The Wildcats played at South Jones Tuesday night, but results were unavailable at press time. They will play at Sacred Heart Thursday before playing in four matches Saturday in the Salem Tournament. Then they will begin district play Monday at home against East Marion.
Fitzgerald said the Wildcats have focused more on positioning in the early going and as they progress through the next week he wants to get the rotation set. He said Saturday was the first time they got a feel for the rotation, and he wants them to get comfortable playing with one another and build team chemistry.
Pictured Above: Columbia senior Abby Morris serves for the Wildcats against Salem. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
