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Highlands Today

Green Dragons Hope True Colors Shine Through

Jesse Osbourne/Highlands Today

Lake Placid's Darby Underwood (left) and Julie Shewsbury share a smile during the Green Dragon's district-final victory over Frostproof last week. LP takes on John Carroll today in a home regional match.

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By Mark  Pinson | Highlands Today

Published: October 30, 2007

LAKE PLACID –– After rallying for an exciting come-from-behind win against Frostproof in last Thursday's Class 3A-District 10 championship, the Lake Placid volleyball team hopes to keep the good times rolling against John Carroll (Fort Pierce) in tonight's regional quarterfinal.

The district championship win improved the Green Dragons to an impressive 16-3 overall, and they're brimming with confidence heading into tonight's tilt with the Golden Rams.

"We're all still excited from winning on Thursday night," said Lake Placid coach Marilyn Jones. "We've been working hard in practice and the girls are focused on being ready to play their best.

"We're preparing for anything because I don't know a thing about John Carroll."

The Golden Rams, which feature a number of talented club players, are the District 9 runner-up after losing to Melbourne Central Catholic. In a regional match two years ago, Carroll defeated LP in four games, a history Jones said she hopes the Dragons can re-write.

"I'll watch the first game and then make some adjustments, according to what kind of offensive sets they are running," Jones said. "No matter what, we know we're going to have our hands full."

The Green Dragons, who are led by outside hitters Kristen Massung and Sierra Weaver, have displayed the mettle needed to go far in the playoffs.

"We know we have to play better than we did at districts," Massung said. "We need to get off to a good start and show that we can play with anybody."

The Green Dragons played a fairly competitive schedule, and Jones knows her team will use the experience to advance to the regional semifinals.

"We didn't play our best in the district tournament and still won," Jones said. "We have the ability to play better and we'll have to if we want to beat John Carroll."

The home-court advantage and a vocal crowd helped the Green Dragons in the district tournament, and Jones is hoping for a repeat performance.

"The crowd was fantastic last week," the Lake Placid coach said. "The noise was great and our girls fed off the energy from the fans, and hopefully we can do that again.

"We have never made it past the first round of regionals and it sure would be nice to accomplish that this year."

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