STARKVILLE — It all starts with passing.
Khris Carr may be a hitter, but the Starkville High School sophomore has been playing volleyball long enough to know any front-row player can’t do anything if the ball never gets there.
The fact that Carr had a match-high nine kills Monday night in a 3-0 victory against Caledonia was just one way to tell Starkville High’s passing was effective.
A balanced attack that featured five other players with at least three kills helped the Lady Yellow Jackets (6-7) capitalize on a solid evening of serve receiving that helped the offense stay in system.
“If you can’t pass, you can’t hit, and you can’t win,” said Carr, whose team won 25-10, 25-22, 25-17. “Passing is one of the most essential things in volleyball.”
Carr has played club volleyball in Tupelo and in Columbus. She has spent time in Columbus and in Alabama working with former Mississippi State University volleyball coach Tina Seals with the hope that she will be able to earn a scholarship to play the sport in college.
At 5-foot-9, Carr has the athleticism and explosiveness to be one of the top hitters in the state. At the next level, though, most Division I programs have front-row players 6-foot or taller. Carr knows that, which is why she has tried to become an all-around player who can serve, pass, dig, and hit. She showcased all of those skills Monday night, playing in all six rotations and helping Starkville earn the sweep.
“(My all-around ability) can get me very far,” Carr said. “Colleges don’t always want hitters. You need to be able to pass the ball. Any position they need to put you in, you should be able to get it and go. Passing is very essential. That will probably get me very far.”
Caledonia was coming off victories against Amory, Oxford, and Belmont and a loss to Southaven last weekend at the Tupelo VolleyFest. Coach Samantha Brooks said the Lady Confederates played some of the best volleyball of the season in those matches, especially against state power Southaven. But she said all of the things the team did well in Tupelo never materialized Monday night.
Passing was high on the list.
“Absent,” Brooks said when asked to assess her team’s performance passing. “We made our own mistakes. I expected a lot better. We played incredible on Saturday. We all had really high expectations.”
Unfortunately, Caledonia couldn’t duplicate their execution against Starkville, save for the second set and the first part of the third set. Caledonia led 19-12 and 20-15 in the second set only to see Starkville’s Courtney Wilson (three kills) rip off six consecutive points before a kill by Elisha Collins (six kills) stopped the run and cut Starkville’s lead to 23-22. Caledonia was able to pass well enough on only three of Wilson’s serves to get an attempt to put the ball away.
Caledonia’s momentum was short-lived, as a missed kill gave Starkville match point. Carr then sealed the deal with a kill in the left side.
The third game went much like the first two, with Starkville handling serves regardless who was in the lineup. April Reese (three kills) and Vicky Vo each had three-point service runs to help the Lady Yellow Jackets build the lead. Even Brooks’ encouraging words “Help out the setter” from the bench didn’t pay off. Trailing 19-14, Caledonia had a bad pass and an overpass that led to a kill by Carr before Wilson served an ace and Reese had a kill to push the lead to 23-14. A kill by Carr set the stage for a textbook sequence in which Wilson delivered a pass to Michaela Mills (five kills), who set up Jamiyah Covington (three kills) for the final kill.
While Brooks was left to wonder what happened after such an impressive performance Saturday, Starkville coach Lauren Love was pleased with how her team regrouped from a 1-4 showing Saturday in Tupelo. Despite losses to Lewisburg, Lafayette, Long Beach and Southaven and a victory against Pontotoc, Love said Starkville was competitive against some of the state’s top teams. Love said the effort Monday night reflected the hard work the team has put in on passing.
“We came out in the first game and served aggressively and got a few point runs against them,” said Love, whose daughter, Elaina Clark, celebrated being one month old with her first trip to Starkville High’s gym. “At the beginning of the second set, they came out and had service runs against us on our serve receive. It just shows that passing and serving can carry the momentum of the sets and the match.”
Love said some of the team’s taller players like Carr, Stacie Young (five kills), and Reese are versatile and can help keep up the team’s passing when they are in the lineup. She said Carr has honed her skills playing club volleyball and attending numerous camps. Love, who played volleyball at the University of Tennessee, understands Carr has aspirations to play volleyball at the next level and feels she is making the steps to realize that goal.
“She works hard in the offseason,” Love said. “Any time you get extra touches in a competitive atmosphere it is definitely going to show on the court. In practice and in the matches, she is swinging faster and hitting harder and she is doing a great job on defense and passing, so her all-around game has picked up. Her level of confidence on the court has grown so much.”
Carr feels her defense has improved, but she knows there always is work to be done. She is looking forward to working on those skills the rest of the season to help her game and her teammates improve.
“In practice, that is out main thing. We need to be able to pass,” Carr said. “Coach has told us plenty of times that passing is very important, and that is the number one thing we need to get before we hit.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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