Getting a team ready for the start of the season isn't easy, so PowerZone Volleyball Center executive director George Mon wanted to try to help out by hosting a series of tri-match scrimmages for girls high school teams at no charge.
"Athletic Directors at schools don't always work that hard to get scrimmages for their teams,'' Mon said. "So we thought we'd try to give some teams an easy opportunity to get together and play. We could give them an easy chance to meet up and scrimmage each other.''
PowerZone, in Denville, hosted the tri-match scrimmages in the afternoon on Aug. 31. The facility has six courts, so the schools could bring their varsity and junior varsity teams and have both play at the same time. The teams were able to condense what could have been a five-or six-hour event at a high school into three hours.
Morristown coach Ron Davenport was glad to get his team a chance to play in the event. The Colonials matched up with Lakeland and Paramus Catholic.
"Any time you can get more games against different teams, that's good,'' Davenport said. "Those are two teams we normally wouldn't play, and by playing two matches, I get more looks at my players, and the players get to see what different teams are doing. Even for the girls who aren't in the games, they're seeing the things the other players are doing, it gives everybody more looks on and off the court.''
Davenport said Paramus Catholic and Lakeland are similar to many of the teams his Colonials will meet during the regular season. He's in his second year as head coach, and the team is looking for its first-ever state tournament berth. The school has fielded a volleyball team for six years.
"This was really good preparation for us,'' Davenport said. "We played some pretty strong teams. We have some really good athletes, but not all of them have a lot of volleyball experience, so this helped get them some exposure.''
Davenport has two senior starters, captains Nicole Omaggio (setter) and Emily Denton (middle blocker) to lead his team. Two sophomores, Kori Reigel and Kendall Ferraro, will play at the outside hitter spots, while junior Christina Epps will be the other middle. Sophomore Alex Taylor will play right side, and junior Leiddy Hormaza is the libero.
"Kori is probably our best all-around player, and Kendall also has good skills,'' Davenport said. "Christina is the county high-jump champion, and she also plays basketball, so she has tremendous jumping ability. It's just a matter of getting the approach down for her. Leiddy is probably the best athlete in the school.''
Julia Cox, a 5-9 junior, could also see a lot of playing time, Davenport said, and he says there are some good athletes on the bench.
"We have a lot of girls who have varsity experience, but this is the first year they'll be the main players on the team,'' he said.
Playing in the scrimmages at PowerZone helped in that area as the team gets ready for its opener at Parsippany on Friday, Davenport said.
"The pieces are all there for us to have a good season, its just a matter of the girls getting the experience and showing the desire to win,'' he said.
Sparta, Parsippany, and Dover also participated in the tri-match scrimmages.
This was the first year PowerZone hosted the scrimmages, and Mon said he plans to do the same for boys teams in March, and again for the girls before the start of the 2008 season.
"This was the first time we've done this, and everyone was really satisfied,'' Mon said. "With six courts, we could get 18 teams in here at one time, if teams wanted that, and then we could match everybody up based on their level of play. Next year, we'll try to do it over two days, the Wednesday and Thursday before Labor Day weekend.''
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