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Raiders have mixed feelings about tournament
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Published: October 16, 2009
The North Piedmont Conference went against the trend and scheduled a conference volleyball tournament this year.
North Iredell volleyball coach Natalie Tribble would just as soon do without it, but the conference athletic directors approved it, she said.
"I don't like the concept of the conference tournament," said Tribble, whose team finished second in the NPC and will open the NPC tournament Monday at home against last-place West Rowan. "We've never had one before. Basically, when you have seven teams in your conference, it's like you're playing each other to death."
North doesn't have much to gain other than the possible NPC tournament title. It can't improve its playoff seeding, but the Raiders could drop down to third place if someone other than top-seeded and regular-season champion West Iredell wins the tournament.
"It can only hurt us," Tribble said. "Whoever wins the conference tournament has the No. 2 seed (for playoffs). So it can only hurt us."
If North can win its first- and second-round matches in the NPC volleyball tournament, it will likely get a rematch with West Iredell in Wednesday's tournament championship.
West swept the season series with the Raiders, rallying to win both matches in five games.
"We knew even without the conference tournament, we had a good chance of maybe meeting them in again in playoffs," Tribble said. "I'm excited about it. My girls are excited about it."
"I think the fans are excited about it," Tribble continued. "It's always a good volleyball game. I don't care when it is, what year it is, if you show up to a North Iredell-West Iredell game you're going to get your monies worth."
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