Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 14, 1992 TAG: 9202140062
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-12 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
GREEN WAVE GIRLS SCORE A VOLLEYBALL FIRST
No reference book appears to be available. No witnesses have come forth. The trophy case is bare.Although the historical record may be incomplete, it appears that Narrows High volleyballers have spiked their way boldly into uncharted realms of girls' sports there.
When the Green Wave washed away the opposition - mostly without a trace - this year, the resulting Mountain Empire District regular season championship was believed to be the first ever for the girls. In any sport. In any league.
Maybe. Or at least until somebody comes through with some fresh evidence.
"Rick Franklin [Narrows athletic director] told me that he looked all the way through the trophy case at the high school and he couldn't find anything," assistant coach Mike Burton said. "Nothing." Which is pretty much what the opposition has gotten out of Narrows and first-year head coach Erin Wood. In 10 matches this year, Narrows has lost one game.
"They've shown natural talent and teamwork," said Wood, a former Narrows player who is finishing up at Concord College in Athens, W.Va. She played four years of volleyball there.
Setter-hitter Crystal Linkous, outside hitter Vanessa Rose, setter-hitter Shana Hazelwood, hitter Leslie Rice, hitter Amy Buracker and blocker Melinda Fleeman have been dominant in the MED.
A year ago, the Wave lost only to league champion Giles, was both regular season and tournament runner-up, and went to the Group Region C tournament. Narrows lost to Parry McCluer there.
"They started playing as freshmen and sophomores and they've gelled pretty well since then," said Burton, a former Narrows basketball standout who went on to play at Radford University. "They got thrown to the dogs early."
Burton, a Norfolk Southern brakeman, was head coach a year ago and Wood his assistant. "I kind of hollered at them when they needed it," he said. "Erin was the strategist."
In truth, who needs a lot of strategy when you have players the caliber of Narrows'? Linkous may be one of the best setters in the state. "All I know is that I wish I had her playing with me when I was at Concord," Wood said.
Linkous and Rose graduate this year, but everybody else is back. Fleeman is a sophomore playing for the first time. An indication of her talent is that she stepped in and made an impact at once.
Narrows will be in good shape in the postseason because it hosts both the MED tournament on Saturday and the Group A Region C tournament Feb. 22.
Brian Eigel, two-time Timesland cross country runner of the year from Christiansburg High, broke three school indoor track records within four days of each other recently - in the 1,000 meters, the 1,600 and the 3,200.
His 2:36.1 in the 1,000 broke Jeff Custer's old record of 2:39. which was set in 1983. Custer, it will be recalled, is cross country coach and reigning distance guru at Christiansburg. Eigel's 4:25.9 in the 1,600 eclipsed Troy Long's mark of 4:30.3 set in 1990. The new 3,200 standard of 9:51.8 in the 3,200 broke Eigel's own record of 9:53.3 that he set last year.
The 1,000 was broken at Virginia Tech on Feb. 5 and the other two were set Saturday at VMI at the state invitational; Eigel dominated both races. Another Demon athlete, sprinter-hurdler-jumper Darrell Lucas, was the leading scorer at the invitational with 22 points. He had a second in the 300, a second in the 500, and a third in the 55 high hurdles.
Short stuff:
New River District wrestling champ Carroll County had nine in the finals and seven won. . . . Only one Cavalier placed as low as fourth. . . . Paul Hash at 189 and Greg 112-pounder Greg Lineberry are 43-0 with 32 pins between them. . . . Cave Spring point guard Kim Stewart is 25 of 55 (45.4 percent) from 3-point range for the girls' team. That would put her in the top-four among Timesland boys in that category. . . . B.W. Hill's return to action for Fort Chiswell's basketball team after mending a broken arm has given the Pioneers a terrific boost. Doug Mabry, the point guard and Hill's cousin, had 14 assists in two recent games with the majority of them going to Hill. "Hill has made a tremendous difference," Pioneers coach Danny Jonas said. "I hope it keeps up." . . . Charles Hardy is back for Christiansburg's basketball team after being out for four games because of illness and personal reasons.