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Cougars set to serve

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By DAREK SHARP

dsharp@tampatrib.com

Published: October 21, 2009

PLANT CITY - Durant has never been seeded so low for a district volleyball tournament, but that doesn't mean the Cougars aren't feared.

The District 5A-8 volleyball gathering starts Monday and just so happens to be at Durant. Although the Cougars come in as the No. 3 seed behind Armwood and Newsome, head coach Jeff Davis doesn't think that's much of a factor.

Davis is pretty confident his team's experience in mid-season tournaments, the best example coming Oct. 9 and 10 at the Tampa Bay Invitational, will carry it to the district finals.

Durant finished dead last in the tournament, going 0-5, but those defeats were to mostly great competition including Berkeley Prep, Jensen Beach and St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale).

"I liked the way we competed," Davis said. "Berkeley Prep is just ... awesome. I was just excited that our girls got to see a team like that, much less play against them."

The Cougars also played a team from Alabama (Madison High) and then squared off with a familiar face, district rival Newsome, losing that match in four games.

And so with a bad-looking record of 5-14, but having been toughened by strong competition, the Cougars returned to their regular schedule Oct. 13 and against Plant City - which had a much better record at 10-6 - Durant rolled to a straight-set victory.

"That was the whole idea exactly," Davis said. "Hey, we're not necessarily about prepping up some kind of great record. This scheduling has just made us better."

District tournament play begins at 4 p.m. Monday. The semifinals are 5 and 7 p.m. Tuesday. The two teams that end up advancing to the 7 p.m. Oct. 29 district title match will both be playoff-bound, though there certainly is an advantage to finishing up as district champ. The runner-up will have to go on the road for its playoff opener, and the closest destination would be Spring Hill.

There are four teams in District 5A-7, Brooksville Central, Springstead in Spring Hill and two Ocala schools, West Port and Forest.

Through the Plant City match, Alison Wade led Durant with 187 kills or about three per game. Kerrie Reinhardt, Chelsea Bowden and Caitlyn Still all had at least 50 kills for the year.

Other teams in the district tourney are East Bay, Riverview and Tampa Bay Tech.
Armwood comes in as the No. 1 seed by virtue of its Thursday win over Newsome.

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