In the most competitive sport in the Moore League, it’s a three-team tango at the top. Wilson, Lakewood and Poly are all ranked in the top ten of the latest Division I-AA Girls’ Volleyball Poll, and every game between those teams will be a must watch. It all starts tonight…
MOORE LEAUGE SEASON OPENER: Wilson vs. Lakewood Lakewood High @ 4:30pm
Twenty years ago, Lakewood head coach Mike Wadley was wearing the maroon and gold, so he knows what the Moore League is all about.
“It all goes through Wilson,” says Wadley, whose Lancers are the consensus favorites to take the Moore League this season. “It’s like this year in football with Poly and Lakewood… a team losses some players, and another team has some coming back… you still have to go play, and we all know that you have to go there and beat the Bruins first.”
Wadley and his Lancers will get a chance to do exactly that as they play host to Wilson on the opening night of Moore League play, and like he said, it is just like Moore League football this year. A senior-heavy Wilson squad will need to reload after losing some great seniors that helped with the Moore League crown, again, while Lakewood and Poly bring almost everyone back.
For the Lancers that means some of the best outside hitters in the area, Jazmine Orozco and Taylor Hollins. Setter Megan Moenoa and OH Tyler Jackson play big roles as well, but Orozco and Hollins will have to figure out a way to get balls past a backline at Wilson that’s tops in the Moore League.
The Bruins are returning four players in the back that will make it hard on any them to score. The battle between the Lancer hitters and defensive specialists like Jenna McNaney and Candace Nicholson, as well as roving setters Kellie Woolever and Rebecca Strehlow, may decide the match, and eventually the final league standings.
Even though the game is so early in the Moore League schedule, it will serve as a preview of some of the story lines to come this season…
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL MOORE LEAGUE SCHEDULE
Can the Bruins overcome the loss of the great senior class of ‘08? Click here for the season preview
Can the Lancers stay hungry and prove all the pundits right? Click here for the season preview
Did the ‘Rabbits grow up enough in the off-season to run with the big dogs? Click here for the season preview