It won’t be just another day of volleyball Saturday at the Geneva County High School Gym.
It will a patriotic day of two tournaments at the gym, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on New York City and Washington.
The second of the tournaments is billed as a Salute to the USA Tournament.
Prior to the Salute to the USA Tournament, a special salute will be held for service men and women who lost their lives and to fire and rescue workers who contributed efforts that day 20 years ago. There will also be a moment of silence in honor of the nearly 3,000 people who lost lives in the attacks.
The Salute to the USA Tournaments features eight teams, including 2A state ranked Ariton. The Purple Cats are joined in Pool A by Rehobeth, Northside Methodist and New Brockton. Pool B teams consist of Ashford, Bethlehem (Fla.), Elba and Geneva.
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Action is scheduled to start with pool play around 1 p.m. The two pool winners play in the championship match Saturday night.
The Salute to USA Tournament is preceded by the 5th Annual Geneva County Invitational, which starts the day at 8 a.m. The Invitational is a six-team, two-pool event.
In Pool A are Slocomb, Dale County and Goshen. In Pool B are Houston County, Cottonwood and Samson.
Following pool play, the top two teams in each pool square off in bracket semifinal matches. The semifinal winners meet in the tournament championship, slated to be played around noon time.
Ariton moves up: Ariton was the lone Wiregrass team to move up in the latest al.com state volleyball rankings released Thursday morning.
The Purple Cats won a pair of matches during the last week to improve to 8-1 prior to action on Thursday. The two victories helped Ariton inch up a spot to No. 9 in the Class 2A rankings.
Two drop out: Two Wiregrass teams dropped out of the top 10 this week – Enterprise and Pike Liberal Arts – despite neither team losing during the week.
Enterprise (5-4) didn’t play at all during the week, having a match cancelled by Opp on Tuesday. The Wildcats, though, fell from their No. 10 spot of a week ago in Class 7A and down to others nominated after Vestavia Hills won a pair of matches to vault into the poll over EHS.
Pike Liberal Arts (4-3) won its only match of the week, a five-set win over third-ranked Lee-Scott, but was passed by strong weeks from Southern Academy, Hooper Academy and Morgan Academy in the AISA poll. The Patriots are in the others nominated category.
Staying the course: Four Wiregrass teams stayed the same in the state rankings as last week, including 2A top-ranked G.W. Long. The Rebels went 2-0 during the last week to remain at No. 1 for a second straight week.
Providence Christian (10-7) remained No. 2 in Class 5A, Kinston (9-1) at No. 5 in Class 1A and Lakeside School (3-3) at No. 7 in the AISA poll.