The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

WITH the Government Secondary Schools Sports Association (GSSSA) volleyball regular season coming to a close, senior teams have turned up the intensity on the courts.

The GSSSA volleyball playoffs are less than a week away - beginning next week Tuesday - for junior and senior teams.

Action continued on Wednesday for the senior girls and boys at the CI Gibson High School, Anatol Rodgers School and DW Davis gymnasiums.

The CR Walker Knights senior boys and girls took the floor against the Government High School Magic at CI Gibson.

The Magic upset last year’s senior girls defending champions, the Knights, in a competitive three sets match. The Knights were locked into a tie in with the CV Bethel Stingrays coming into the matchup with a 4-1 win/loss record in the GSSSA volleyball standings.

In the initial set, the Magic collected a narrow 25-24 win over the Knights to get on the score sheet first. The Knights charged back in set two and knocked off the Magic 25-20 to shift the momentum.

However, the Magic regained their composure in the final set and won in convincing fashion (15-6) to hand the Knights their second loss of the season.

Charma Smith, head coach of the Magic, credited the tough win against their opponents to their in-game strategy on the floor.

“It is the same team from last year, I just put in more work with my girls. I had them focused on passing on the net, and keeping the balls deep. More than likely, we are gonna meet them again in the playoffs so we have to focus on the net. I know they are gonna come back strong but we just have to continue doing what we are doing and we are sure that we will come out on top,” Smith said.

The Knights senior boys’ team had a better showing in their match after they shut down the Magic in two consecutive sets. The undefeated team claimed set one 25-14. The Magic put out a better performance in the following set but the Knights once again were victors, winning 25-18.

Trevor Grant, head coach of the Knights, talked about the comfortable win against the Magic. “It is a pretty good win, the Magic came out to play, my guys made some mental errors. Hats off to the Magic last year, they gave us the shakes but this year we regrouped and came back much stronger,” Grant said.

He added that the team is still a force to be reckoned with and, although they lost last year due to overconfidence, they want to remain undefeated going into next week’s playoffs.

The Anatol Rodgers Timberwolves senior boys and girls took down the CC Sweeting Cobras in straight sets at their gymnasium.

The girls asserted their dominance in set one and won 25-11 and secured set two 25-15.

On the other side, the senior boys defeated the Cobras 25-13 in set one and topped it off with a 25-15 victory in set two to complete the wins for both divisions.

The Stingrays pulled off a similar feat to the Timberwolves, with both the boys and girls winning their games. The senior school trumped the Doris Johnson Mystic Marlins in two sets apiece. For the girls, the Stingrays completed the set one victory 25-16 and had an identical score in set two.

The boys emerged with a win in set one (25-19) and nabbed set two 25-20.

The final games of the GSSSA volleyball regular season will be played today for the senior and junior schools. As previously mentioned, playoff action begins next week Tuesday, November 7.