A Force

Colleen has been making the paper for her blocks during games, but today the paper highlighted her team for an article. Also at the bottom is the stats for the Fredericksburg area her blocking. Being second out of at least 50 girls is a good start.



Panthers pushing district rivals
Volleyball notepad
Date published: 9/27/2011

North Stafford, Colonial Forge and Riverbend appear to be the class of the Commonwealth District.

But it is becoming increasingly apparent that another team might make things interesting once the playoffs begin--and it's not Albemarle.

Massaponax is 5-3 in the district and 8-7 overall, and coach Joe Cox says his team is not far from challenging the upper tier.

"I feel like we're making progress and I think we're a talented team that's learning to play together," Cox said. "We're playing good volleyball; we just need to figure out how we can turn that into more victories."

Massaponax started this season with a three-game loss to Courtland, but when the two teams met later in the year, the Cougars were pushed to five games.

The Panthers also have a victory over perennial power Albemarle, and they took one game against undefeated North Stafford.

"When we pass well, we're pretty good, and when we run our offense we're pretty good," Cox said. "We have 13 good players, and we still have to figure out our best combination on the court."

For much of this season, that combination has included Taylor Zadai and Emilee Hill, both of whom were sidelined with injuries for long stretches last year.

This year, Zadai leads the team in kills and Hill is second in blocks and second in kills. Sophomore Colleen Beaver has also been a force at the net.

"When she's blocking well," Cox said of Beaver, "she's really quite dominant."

Blocks: Janay Frazier (Ch) 70; Colleen Beaver (Ma) 62; Bria Carter (Sp) 50; Taylor Young (Cu) 44; Christine Jackson (NS) 38.