PORT ISABEL — Coach Stacy Selby of the Coastal Bend has become a faithful advocate for Port Isabel’s Volley at the Beach Tournament.
Selby has brought her volleyball team to the Lady Tarpons’ annual tournament for several years as coach at West Oso. Now she’s in her first season as the coach at Corpus Christi Carroll and she has the Lady Tigers of District 30-5A playing for the first time in the seventh annual three-day, 12-team event at Port Isabel’s main and practice gyms.
It seems to be a good fit for the Lady Tigers, who went 3-0 in pool play Friday to earn one of the top seeds for today’s Gold Division bracket-play competition.
“It was really good (to go 3-0) and we’re seeing some good things,” said Selby, a former standout athlete in volleyball and track at Texas A&M-Kingsville before starting her coaching career. “This is my first time to be here coaching for Corpus Christi ISD. I was here (at the Port Isabel tournament) when I coached at West Oso for three years.
I have a young team this season with a freshman libero and we’re still training the ones in the middle,” she added. “So far, things are looking good and we’re excited. Today I saw that the girls are working on speeding up our offense, and I liked that. That’s what we need to do to compete against the top schools in Corpus Christi (in our district) like Tuloso-Midway, Veterans Memorial and Gregory-Portland.
“Carroll has been what I call ‘Under Construction’ (in volleyball) the last few years, and basically our goal for this tournament is to hopefully win it and build up some morale.”
The Lady Tigers went 3-0 in pool play by defeating Rio Hondo 25-15, 25-17, West Oso 25-12, 25-14 and Port Isabel 25-16, 25-19.
There were six pool-play matches Friday and the final contest of the day had Carroll facing Port Isabel to determine the pool winner as both teams had gone 2-0 in their earlier matches.
The Lady Tarpons of District 32-4A battled on even terms with the Lady Tigers, particularly during the second game, which was tied seven times, the last of which was 11-11.
“I thought our girls did a great job today,” Lady Tarpons coach Julie Breedlove said. “We’re finding those six players who will work together the best on the court. The thing is we also have a couple of players that we can bring in to help when we need them as well.
“I was pleased with our overall play,” she added. “Still, I think we could have covered (the floor) a little bit better, and it’s one of those things we’ll continue to work on. I was pleased that we didn’t give up and the girls fought hard all the way through to the end, and that’s what I’m most proud of. It was exciting to play two teams from out of the Valley.”
Prior to their match against Carroll, the Lady Tarpons defeated West Oso 25-18, 25-22 and Rio Hondo 25-19, 25-23.
In the other pool-play match Friday, West Oso downed Rio Hondo 25-17, 25-21.
The tournament’s Gold Division bracket-play quarterfinals, based on seedings from pool play, are set today at 9 a.m. with PSJA Southwest (1) vs. Monte Alto (8) and Port Isabel (4) vs. Santa Rosa (5), and at 10 a.m. with Hanna (3) vs. La Feria (6) and Carroll (2) vs. Lopez (7).
The championship match is scheduled at 5 p.m.
Also, Weslaco East, West Oso, Rio Hondo and Progreso also are matched today in Silver Division competition.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess