Newspaper Page Text
EJCHS Volleyball
THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS. WEDNESDAY. OCTOBER 22. 2008 - PAGE 3B
Elizabeth Banks waits for the serve at a recent
East Jackson volleyball game.
Photo by Brandon Reed
East Jackson Volleyball Ends Season With Loss
“We've got eight upcoming seniors and
10 juniors coming back next year, and
a couple of sophomores who probably
deserve a spot too. We can only use 10
or 12 on the varsity squad, so a lot of
people are going to be very disappointed,
and after their performance this year,
several of our more experienced players
may find themselves without a place on
the team next year.
“That's a hard thing to say and to do as
a coach. But we've got to know that we
can depend on every one of those varsity
girls to play their best and to want to con
tinually improve.’'
Despite the disappointing season,
Thomas said a number of positive things
came out of the Lady Eagles’ 2008 cam
paign.
“Marie Manders has become a very
good setter,’’ he said. “Mikki McGinnis
and Jenna Dukes went from having never
played before to being among our top
three or four players. The JV was just
incredible. They had a chance to win
every match.
“While we'd like to have been more suc
cessful from a wins/losses standpoint,
we feel confident that we were able to
build a very strong foundation for the
program to be successful in the future,
both short and long-term.’’
The Lady Eagles ended their season
with a 1-7 area record, and 2-30 overall.
CHS Football
— Tigers Bested By Wolves At Home
By Brandon Reed
The season ended a lit
tle earlier than the East
Jackson Lady Eagle vol
leyball team had planned.
They had hoped to win a
play-in on Tuesday to make
their way into the area tour
nament over the weekend.
They came close, but fell
to Greene County 1-2 to
see their season come to
an end.
The Lady Tigers won in
sets of 20-25, 25-14 and
19-25.
“What you want in any
program is to have every
one progress,’’ said coach
Tim Thomas. “We didn't
see that this year. Our new
players came on board and
gave us some tremendous
effort and spirit. But a lot
of our more experienced
players never got any bet
ter. They were just as good
in August as they were in
October. As a team, you
can't be competitive that
way. Everyone has got to
have that desire to continu
ally get better and better,
and we just didn't see that
in some of our more expe
rienced players this year.’’
Thomas said the unfortu
nate thing is the position
that the coaching staff now
finds itself in going into
next year.
Cont. from Page IB
With two minutes left
before the half, Wesleyan
scored again to take a 14-7
lead.
A third quarter intercep
tion by Wesleyan led to
another touchdown but
the kick went wide left
leaving Commerce with
a 13-point deficit, 20-7.
Then, with three minutes
CHS Softball
left in the third quarter,
Wesleyan scored on a
pass play, but hobbled the
snap on the extra point.
Three minutes into the
quarter, Wesleyan scored
yet again on a 15-yard
run, departing Commerce
with a 33-7 win to remain
undefeated in region play.
Commerce is now 1-2 in
region play and 2-5 over
all.
Commerce picked up
only four first downs to
Wesleyan’s 19. Commerce
held the ball only 18:20.
The Tigers suffered
only five yards of penal
ties, compared to 51 for
Wesleyan.
Thomas Sears had a
quarterback sack for
Commerce.
— Commerce Bumped By Hebron
EJCHS Softball
—Lady Eagles End Softball Season
Cont. from Page IB
The rout started when
senior Autumn Wilbanks
hit a triple with two runners
on to give East Jackson an
early lead. Shelby Johnson
had three hits and six sto
len bases on the day as
well.
GAC
Things didn’t go so well
that night against Greater
Atlanta Christian, which
shut out the Lady Eagles
2-0.
“We just didn’t execute
when we needed to,’’
Rainey said. “We had
chances early on to score,
and we didn’t. When that
happens, you allow your
self very little margin for
error later on.’’
The game was score
less until late, when GAC
picked up two runs.
“It was very close, but
that’s what happens when
you get to this level,’’ Rainey
said. “Sometimes it’s not
about errors, it’s about
missed opportunities.’’
Adairsville
Now in the losers’ brack
et, the Lady Eagles played
Adairsville at noon. While
that game went better than
the GAC pairing, some
early hobbled balls and
missed opportunities gave
Adairsville the 4-2 win,
eliminating East Jackson.
“Things just didn’t go our
way,’’ Rainey said. “We hit
the ball some right to them,
we dropped a couple, but
we were one hit away at
the end from tying that
game up.’’
Bralee Griffin went 3-for-
4 against Adairsville, while
Abby Woodall and Brooke
Yarbrough both produced
hits.
“I was real proud of them,’’
Rainey said of his team.
Despite the loss in the
sectionals, the Lady Eagles
won the Region 8-AA title
for the second time in only
their second season.
“They played well when
they needed to during the
season,’’ Rainey said. “To
face the pressure they did
this year and to return to
beat two teams that beat us
early this year, they played
well.’’
Rainey said the seniors
on his team played a big
factor in its success, pro
viding good examples for
the remaining players of
how to work together and
how to play as a team.
“That’s hard to teach,’’ he
said.
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Cont. from Page IB
back-to-back hits and
scored.’’
The game was scoreless
until the bottom of the sev
enth when Hebron scored
the only run of the game on
a single out to right field.
Hebron was knocked out
in its next game against
Bowden.
Leading up to Saturday’s
game, the Lady Tigers faced
Wesleyan on Friday in the
first round of the section
als. Wesleyan swept past the
Lady Tigers, putting up 10
runs over the sixth and sev
enth innings in a 10-shutout.
“We played very well up
until that point,’’ Canup
observed
Wesleyan moved on after
the win, only to fall to
Gordon Lee.
Bumped to the losers’
bracket, Commerce faced
Walker Saturday morning.
Walker had lost to Gordon
Lee on Friday, and was also
fighting to stay in the tour
nament. The Lady Tigers
sent Walker packing after a
10-1 victory in six innings to
advance to the noon game
against Hebron.
The Lady Tigers ended
the season with an 11-14
record.
Looking back, Commerce
started the 2008 season
without a run in its first
three games, improved as
the season progressed and
played some of their best
softball as the regular sea
son closed.
The top three Tigers in
runs scored were Brittney
Beauchamp, 19; CJ Wilkes,
17; and Brooklyn Stinchomb,
16.
Bekah Andrews led the
team in RBIs with 27, fol
lowed by Stinchomb with 16
and Beauchamp with 14.
As a team, the Lady Tigers
scored 96 runs on 123 hits
in 554 at bats. They had 83
RBIs, 95 singles, 19 doubles,
eight triples, one homerun
and 15 stolen bases.
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October 25 & 26
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Downtown Braselton Park
FREE Parking • FREE Admission
Join us for excellent shopping and good food and beverag
Booth Space Available * For more information call 706-824-7204.
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