A-P volleyball works on execution at home invite

   PARKERSBURG – The Aplington-Parkersburg volleyball team knows what's going right and what's going wrong on the floor.

   Now, it's a matter of the Falcons' executing what they've been practicing in a game-time situation, and though A-P took its lumps at the Falcons' home tournament on Saturday, head coach Jana Surratt feels her team's ready to turn the corner.

   A-P started the day with a sweep of Nashua-Plainfield, 21-5, 21-16, but dropped the next five matches to 2A No. 3 Grundy Center, 1A No. 7 Tripoli, Wapsie Valley, West Delaware and Denver.

   The mixture of competition, ranging from NICL East foes to high-caliber competition from various small-school classifications, provided a good test for A-P's smaller squad that had to run through a few different formations on Saturday to account for athletes either being injured or fulfilling other simultaneous Saturday commitments.

   "We were in every game even though we were moving people around," Surratt said. "There'd be times where I'd call timeout and ask if I even need to say anything, and they'd say 'no,' because it's not that we haven't prepared or there's a lack of knowledge, it's just physically being able to do it. We'll get there."

   Read more in the Sept. 13 Eclipse.