Broncos rock Eagles; Eagles 4th at River City

By Randy Lefko
randy@claytodayonline.com

JACKSONVILLE - After a strong game one against defending 5A champion Middleburg High on Thursday that finished a 3-1 match loss for the Fleming Island High volleyball team, Fleming Island High coach Amy Yoder used the confidence of their match with the Lady Broncos to surge over the weekend and finish fourth at the JJVA River City Classic in Jacksonville.
Fleming Island enters the week with a gauntlet of four road games in a row with Trinity Christian Academy, Orange Park, Nease and Menendez on the hook all on the road.
Fleming Island, now 8-5 in regular season play, wound up a 26-24 winner in game one, but lost with games of 25-20, 25-22 and 25-9 to the Broncos, who had some key players out with injuries, according to coach Meredith Forkum, and were working through some lineup changes for the game.
Middleburg returns to action with a resurgent Oakleaf team visiting on Thursday, September 19 and always tough Trinity Christian Academy on September 24.
Oakleaf, now 6-6, handed Trinity Christian a tough 3-2 game won by TCA, but coach Jamie Reed is seeing a marked improvement from her team.
"They are getting it that they can compete with most teams from around here," said Reed, who has Bolles, Fletcher and Nease upcoming as well. "We are finding the girls in the right spots and playing tough."
At the River City Classic at JJVA, one of the premiere tournaments in area high school seasons over the years, Hagerty (4-0, 10-0) won the Main Street Division title with a win over Creekside (4-1) after Fleming Island (3-2, 6-6) took Creekside to (4-1, 8-2) overtime 27-29 before losing 2-0 to finish with The Rock (4-1, 8-3) taking the third place team spot with a 2-0 win over the Golden Eagles.
In the Acosta Division, Providence (5-0-10-0) beat Matanzas (3-2, 7-4) for the first-place trophy with Trinity Christian Academy taking third over Viera.
Locally, Orange Park (2-3, 4-6) finished sixth in the Acosta division with a final loss to Episcopal.
In the ninth place Acosta game, St. Johns Country Day School (3-2, 6-6) beat Ridgeview (2-3, 5-7) with Keystone Heights (1-4, 3-9) finishing 12th with a loss to Calvary Day School (2-3, 4-6).
Effingham County (GA) (3-2, 7-5) beat Oakleaf (2-3, 6-6) for 13th place with Clay (2-3, 4-7) 14th with a win over Rickards.

Upcoming games this week (September 16-21)

Monday, September 16
Fleming Island at Trinity Christian Academy

Tuesday, September 17
Fleming Island at Orange Park
Clay at Bishop Snyder
Union County at Keystone Hts
Ridgeview at Bartram Trail

Wednesday, September 18
Fleming Island at Nease

Thursday, September 19
Fleming Island at Menendez
Oakleaf at Middleburg
Eastside at Keystone Hts.
Bishop Kenny at Ridgeview