Corry JV Volleyball Finishes Second in the Fort LeBouef JV Tournament

Corry JV Volleyball Poses for a Picture after a Strong second place finish at the annual Fort LeBoeuf JV Tournament on Saturday. - Picture by Corry Volleyball

Report by Mark Brenner

Waterford - 09/6/2025

The Corry JV Volleyball team travelled to FLB for their first tournament of the 2025 volleyball season and finished #2 in the gold round of playoffs. Corry was 5-1 in pool play, earning a number one seed in the gold round of playoffs. In the quarterfinals they beat the Cochranton Cardinals 2-0.  In the semifinals Corry beat the Harbor Creek Huskies 2-0 who where the one seed in pool C. Corry then went on to the finals where the Beavers lost to the tournament host and number one seed from pool A, The Fort LeBoeuf Bison

Pool play started out fairly well, handling Meadville and Fairview with ease.  GM served well and were scrappy on defense.  When playing GM, Corry lost a little focus, missed some serves, struggled to pass the hard serves, and also had a few hitting errors. This led to a split, each team winning one set.

The Quarterfinals of the Gold Bracket had Corry playing Cochranton.  This was a closely fought match with Cochranton serving tough and playing good ball control defense.  At the end of each set, Corry was able to string together a few kills to secure the win.

The Semi Finals vs. Harbor Creek were also very competitive.   Harbor Creek had good serving, hitting, and defense, but they did not have enough offense to close out the sets.  It took extra points, but Corry prevailed with superior hitting.

In the Gold Finals against FLB, Corry struggled to relax and find their rhythm.  Optimally, there is that perfect tension between focused intensity and playing loose and free.  Corry players were not able to get to that optimal state in the finals. It was a combination of nerves, tiredness, loss of focus, a shortened serving area (which made it harder for the jump servers), and ultimately Corry's inability to pass FLB servers due to not seeing the ball and reacting with proper footwork. That denied Corry the tournament championship.

"This tournament was a great experience for the team." JV Coach Mark Brenner said. "The competition was very good, allowing the opportunity for the team to grow in a stressful and challenging environment.  It showed us things we need to work on in practice.  We would take these closely contested matches over blowout wins every time, because they put us on the road to getting better."

Tournament Format

·      There were 12 teams divided into 3 pools. (Each pool had 4 teams that played each other for two sets to 25.)

·      Corry was in a pool with GM, Fairview, and Meadville.

·      Pool play results were used to seed the tournament bracket, with the top 8 teams from pool play earning a spot in the gold playoff bracket.

Corry Pool Play Scores: (5W, 1L)

·      Vs. Meadville W (25-16), W (25-10)

·      Vs. GM W (25-21), L (23-25)

·      Vs. Fairview W (25-12), W (25-15)

Quarterfinals of the Gold Bracket Playoffs

·      Vs. Cochranton W (19-17), W (15-9)

Semifinals

·      Vs. Harbor Creek W (15-12), W (19-17)

Finals

·      Vs. FLB L (11-15), W (15-11), L (10-15)

Corry's next match is on Tuesday. The Beavers will travel to the "Woodshed" at Maplewood to take on the Tigers in what should be a real barn burner. JV opening serve is at 6:00 PM with varsity action to follow. For those who can't make it to Maplewood, the match will be covered on the DeeJ Experience Sports Stream. www.deejexperience.com