Big meet for
volleyball teams
900 teenagers compete at UC-Davis
It was quite a week of volleyball for two Wood River Valley teams
during the 20th annual Volleyball Festival staged June 29 through July 5 at the
University of California-Davis in Sacramento, Ca.
Coach Tim Richards of Hailey said, "It was a chance to see the
best club teams in the country. The game is so much faster at the higher levels,
and each team we played had real good players."
Wood River Volleyball entered two teams—an 18-and-under squad
that included most of next year’s Hailey high school volleyball team, and a
16-and-under team with players from Hailey and Twin Falls.
The 18-and-under squad was seeded dead last out of 233 teams
in the class, but Wood River competed well and rose as high as 47th before
finishing the week in 110th place of 233 teams, with a 4-8 record.
Coach Richards said, "They played outstanding volleyball,
particularly on defense. Pretty much anybody we lost to, the matches went to
three games."
Wood River’s 18s featured Whitney Richards, Liz Rippon, Charli
Lindley, Jessica King, Emily Smith, Syringa Stark and Kristen Carroll from
Alabama, a former player for coach Richards. Rachael Richards joined the 18s for
the final day of competition.
The 18s won two matches on the first day of action, June 30.
They defeated Columbus (Ohio) and 47th-seed Seattle. Against Fresno the same
day, Wood River won the first game 25-19, lost the second 26-24 and then fell
15-9 in the final game.
Wood River also went to three games with a couple of southern
California teams.
The 16-and-under team with Rachael Richards, Hannah Richards,
Kortnee King, coach Richards’ niece Sara McDaniel of Alabama and several Twin
Falls players coached by Wade Bond of Twin Falls started out seeded 323rd of 325
teams.
They went 1-5 the first two days, but finished well with a 6-0
record the final three days for an overall mark of 8-7 and a final placing of
288th. Teams came from all over the country.
Helping out were chaperones/drivers Cliff and Susan Rippon,
and Jodie Fuller.
This was the final year that the annual UC-Davis summer
volleyball tournament will be held in Sacramento. It moves to Reno, Nev. next
year, on a new five-year deal.