Pearland volleyball tournament rated overwhelming success

September 1, 2009

   

PEARLAND — Pearland head coach John Turner is already gearing up for the NIKE Volleyball Tournament for 2010.

With 76 teams in this year's field as the nation's largest high school volleyball tournament -- Turner saw the tournament move beyond his greatest expectations.

The Pearland Lady Oilers finished their own tournament with a 3-3 record. The Lady Oilers went 3-0 on the first day of the tournament defeating Morton Ranch, Cedar Park, and new Braunfels to advance to the Gold Bracket.

Pearland ran into a very solid Keller Central team and lost a very tough match 18-25, 25-18, 23-25.  The Lady Oilers were led by Malorie Pardo with 18 kills and Marissa Collins with 14 kills.

The Lady O's then took on Arlington Martin but could not bounce back from their loss to Keller Central losing 22-25, 20-25.

The final match of the tournament pit the Oilers against the No. 4 state-ranked Allen team and found the Oilers on the short end again but playing top level volleyball. The final score was 20-25, 25-18, 23-25.  

"I really feel that the wins and losses are going to help us become an even tougher team as move towards district play," Turner said. "We are getting better and better but just not finishing our matches out for the win.  I firmly believe as we finish out three preseason matches and play in the Dickinson Tournament our confidence and ability to win tight matches will come through."

Turner received some great news from NIKE at the beginning of the tournament.

"The tournament was a huge success with a surprising announcement at opening ceremonies by Nike," Turner said. "Nike originally stated that they would donate 50 percent of their profits to MD Anderson Cancer Center, but marketing executive, Scott Zannon, announced that Nike would give 100 percent to the fundraiser."

"This by far was the best tournament we have had. We had 4A powerhouse JJ Pearce take the championship title by defeating San Antonio Regan who was 26-0 going into the match.  I cannot wait for next year because we will have our first out of state team participate in the tourney. The team is from Virgina."

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