With the start of the 2015 New Providence Volleyball Association (NPVA) season rapidly approaching, the Central Gas Lady Panthers Club is staying active. The club is scheduled to host its first Independence Volleyball Tournament to help local players get ready for the upcoming season.
Tournament action is set for July 10-11 at the D.W. Davis Gymnasium, and it will serve as a tribute to the late Tamaz Thompson, a former junior and senior national team volleyball player who passed away earlier this year. Games will begin at 10 a.m. on both days.
There have been a total of 10 teams registered to participate up to this point - five men's and five women's teams. Tournament organizer and Panthers' coach Jason Sanders said that interested teams can still contact him or players Avoni Seymour and Chandra Mackey to register before Wednesday's deadline, at which point they will also decide on the tournament's format. They will use either a round-robin format or pool play with games being played over two sets capped at 25 points. The third place games will be one set to 30 points, while the championship games will go the regular sets.
"We will be using what used to be the old rules, where any touching of the net at the net is not illegal," Saunders said. "You may see where any part of the top of the net that you touch is legal, it is now illegal. They have converted it back to what it used to be, so we will be using that rule because this will be the last tournament before the start of the New Providence regular season play. It will be good to start using some of those rules that will have to be used when the rules change again during the regular season."
Saunders encourages all fans of the game to come out, as well as players who are not a part of a NPVA, because they have the option of forming their own teams as well.
"One of the reasons why we decided to have this tournament has a lot to do with the lack of play for volleyball players in the country," Saunders said. "We really do not play enough volleyball, so in order to compensate for the lack of play, the more tournaments we have, the better it will be for our players.
"Another one of the driving forces for having the tournament is our young ladies who participated on the junior national team, and with this club, when we were the Central Gas Lady Cougars, we played with the late Tamaz Thompson and we thought it would be fitting to continue to help her family with the medical bills that they incurred when she was sick."
Saunders added that they will be looking to make this an annual tournament with some of the proceeds going toward charitable organizations.
Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian
