Published: August 21, 2008 01:01 pm            

Cleburne heading to tourney

The Cleburne Lady Jackets have made positive strides in the early season despite failing to earn a win in the first week of the season.

Going into Tuesday night’s match against Boswell, Cleburne (0-5) had yet to win a game in any of its four matches, but the Lady Jackets took a two games to one lead against the Lady Pioneers before falling in five games.

With the Northwest Tournament beginning Friday, Cleburne will have another chance to post its first victory of the young season, but head coach Floyd Rogers said the competition in the White pool of the tournament will be stiff.

“There’s going to be a lot of good teams there,” Rogers said. “Our pool is not easy, with Dumas, Northwest and Wichita Falls Rider. We’re going to have to scratch just to stay alive. Hopefully we can pull out a top two spot, but it’s going to be tough.”

Cleburne’s first match is scheduled for 10:15 a.m. Friday against Dumas at the Northwest High School north gym. After the match against Dumas, the Lady Jackets are scheduled to stay on the court and face Northwest at 11:30 a.m.

Cleburne will then get to watch a pair of matches before taking the court at 3:15 p.m. against Wichita Falls Rider.

All teams are guaranteed a bracket-play match Friday evening.

Instead of the best-of-five format, the tournament matches will be best-of-three.

Teams will be seeded based on their records in pool play.

Rogers said he hopes the Lady Jackets will take the early-season lumps as a learning experience and build toward making a run in district play.

“I’ve always been one to say that if you can give some beatings, you have to be able to take some sometimes,” Rogers said. “We’ve given some in the past and maybe it’s our turn to take a few, but we’re going to get it back on track. Eventually we can get through this and use it as an experience.”

Rogers said momentum is tough to recover in volleyball once it’s lost, which was one factor in the Lady Jackets’ loss Tuesday night.

“When you’re up 2-1 and you lose the fourth game it’s awfully hard to get it back,” Rogers said. “Young kids don’t know that and understand that, especially when you have an inexperienced team.”

Rogers said the teams Cleburne has played so far are playoff-caliber squads that have helped to show his players where they need to be once district starts.

“All of these teams are getting us ready for district,” Rogers said. “We are going to do what we can so we can be in the top four to make the playoffs. We’ll see how far we can run from there.”

        

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