Forsyth County volleyball was on display last Saturday as four cross-town rivals took the court for the Forsyth County Playday held at West Forsyth High School. I spoke with each head coach about their programs, the Playday and volleyball in general prior to play on Saturday.
The South Forsyth Lady War Eagles were considered the prohibitive favorite, boasting a No. 10 ranking in Class 5A and a 16-8 overall record. Head coach Kelly Wren’s young team is led by seniors Katie Onushko, Jordan Vinuda and Jenni Huff, as well as dynamic junior Kinsey Williams, who has tallied over 50 service aces and 200 kills on the season. Wren likes what this particular tourney does for the local volleyball programs.
“We are trying to build interest and excitement for the sport and build the talent pool for every school as a whole,” Wren said.
North Forsyth came into the tournament with a loss to South earlier in the week still fresh in their minds.
“For years, South Forsyth has been the team to beat in Forsyth County,” head coach Charles Crawford said on Friday. “We clearly showed we can play with South, now we need to keep our composure and expect a win against our cross-town rival.” All four teams were scheduled for three-straight matches, but Crawford was unconcerned with fatigue for the 16-10 Lady Raiders: “We train hard on a day-to-day basis. Three [matches] will have no affect on our play.”
West Forsyth head coach Meredith Phillips said her 11-11 Lady Wolverines were very excited about the tourney.
“Our county is so small and our high school is new, (so) many of the players from each team know one another,” Phillips said. “Thus, the competition is always very good.”
With good teams in their path, Phillips would like to see better play out of her team led by captains Kelsey Turchi and Heidi Bonilla-Germer.
“The difference in being a good team and a great team is the little things. I would like to see (fewer) errors from our players and more consistency,” Phillips said.
As for when I asked Forsyth Central head coach Chuck Adams what his expectations was for his team in the tourney, he wasn’t quite sure.
“It depends on which team shows up,” Adams said. “If our team is awake and playing, I expect to come in first or second. It seems kind of arrogant, but I’ll go ahead and say it. It depends on whether or not our team comes out to play.”
The Lady Bulldogs came into the tourney with a 7-15 record overall and are led by junior Holly Hillenbrendt, who is the team leader in kills.
THE RESULTS
As it was, the Lady War Eagles ruled the day, going 3-0 to win the Forsyth County Playday. As expected, South was led by Williams’s 22 kills, four aces and 12 assists. Other contributors were Onushko with 14 kills, Alyssa Templeton with 11 aces and Kelsey Dolan who had 45 assists on the day.
“We played well overall,” Wren stated after her team’s three wins.
North took second with a 2-1 record, followed by Central (1-2) in third and West (0-3) in fourth. Forsyth County should be proud of the level of play and mutual respect for one another shown by all four programs.
Mitchell can be reached at mitchelltakes@yahoo.com.
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