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Friday
March 19, 2010 Since 1922 |
LC sophomores overcome barriers
By Nathan Hague
The Baytown Sun Published November 6, 2009 The Lee College volleyball team has four sophomores, each one with a unique background.
And this weekend, Tamara Kitic, Christina Jacinto, Tiara Robinson and Julisa Ocasio could be playing together for the final time as they lead the Lady Rebels into the Region XIV District M tournament today and Saturday at Wharton County Community College.
Lee College, 16-11 overall, will play Wharton at 7 p.m. tonight, following a 5 p.m. match between regular season district champ San Jacinto and Laredo.
Tonight’s winners meet at 2 p.m. Saturday with the winner there advancing to the NJCAA tournament Nov. 19-21 at Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Kitic, a right side hitter, arrived from Serbia. She had friends in Houston who knew and recommended Lady Rebels’ coach Tracie Johnson.
Despite missing nearly half the season with a leg injury, the 6-foot-4 Kitic had 177 kills in 48 games for a 3.7-per game total that leads the district. She had 28 kills in a match against Galveston this year.
She is also among the district leaders with .71 blocks per game.
Jacinto came from San Antonio. Her specialty is defense. She finished her freshman year with 200 digs and added 196 this season.
She chose Lee College because she liked the scholarship offers and the volleyball program. She also likes being close to the ocean.
Robinson, a middle hitter, is from Beaumont. She chose Lee
College because it’s close to home. Robinson leads the district in blocks with 92 or 1.1 per game. Teammates say she has a natural ability to jump high. She finished her freshman year with 60 kills and 29 blocks.
Ocasio, a setter, came to Lee College from Puerto Rico. This year, she’s been the setter of the week four times. She finished her freshman year with 893 assists and 381 digs and was named to All Conference and All Region XIV teams.
This year, she has 768 assists (fourth in the district) and 387 digs (third) and leads the district with 58 aces.
The four sophomores all play a different position and Johnson says they all offer something different, both on and off the court.
“Academically, they all study and work really hard,” Johnson said. “Christina wants to be a doctor. Tamara and Julisa had to learn a new language, and those things show how hard they work.”
Johnson says as great as her four sophomores are, there is a down side.
“The bad part is, look what I’m losing,” she said. “How do you replace a 6-foot-4 hitter, our star setter, and leaders? You can replace one person the next year but not four. This will be the most difficult group I’ve ever had to replace.”
During their freshman year, the four of them had a language barrier to get over and learned different things about each other’s cultures. Which wasn’t exactly an easy task.
“It was difficult at first, especially since we were all freshmen and didn’t know everything like how the system works here,” Jacinto said.
“You learn a lot of different stuff from each other because we’re from different cultures and religions and speak different languages.”
It took hard work for the four of them to get over that barrier. Now, they’re starting to see that hard work pay off, both on and off the court.
“You just have keep doing the best you can and don’t ever give up and work extra hard,” Robinson said.
“Hard work pays off,” Kitic said. “No matter how hard it might be with friends and teammates, you should invest everything and go for your goals.”
The Lady Rebels are preparing to meet Wharton in the first round of the regional tournament on Wharton’s home court.
The sophomores say they’re confident they can win, but not cocky.
“We beat them in three games so I know it’s possible if we play hard,” Jacinto said. “We know it’s going to be hard and we won’t walk in there with a big head.”
Ocasio said, “We just have work hard and step up.”
Kitic said the team can’t afford to take anyone lightly but they need everybody to do their jobs.
“This is a quality team sport,” she said. “We need offense, we need defense. Everything is connected. We win as a team.”
“We lost some games because hitting was off or defense was off,” Ocasio said. “If someone’s off, it affects our game in a big way.”
The Lady Rebels fell short to San Jacinto twice this year, and the sophomores agree they want another shot at them.
“I want to beat them so bad,” Kitic said. “We lost by two points twice.”
Jacinto said San Jacinto got lucky and believes the Lady Rebels would win if they were to have a rematch. “We had better stats in both games and they still won. It was definitely luck that they won.”
Kitic said, “They always say third game is the lucky game so….,”
So…the Lady Rebels may or may not have a chance to revenge San Jacinto, but they will have a shot at their ultimate goal.
“We want to go to Nationals, point blank,” Kitic said.
The Baytown Sun Published November 6, 2009 The Lee College volleyball team has four sophomores, each one with a unique background.
And this weekend, Tamara Kitic, Christina Jacinto, Tiara Robinson and Julisa Ocasio could be playing together for the final time as they lead the Lady Rebels into the Region XIV District M tournament today and Saturday at Wharton County Community College.
Lee College, 16-11 overall, will play Wharton at 7 p.m. tonight, following a 5 p.m. match between regular season district champ San Jacinto and Laredo.
Tonight’s winners meet at 2 p.m. Saturday with the winner there advancing to the NJCAA tournament Nov. 19-21 at Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Kitic, a right side hitter, arrived from Serbia. She had friends in Houston who knew and recommended Lady Rebels’ coach Tracie Johnson.
Despite missing nearly half the season with a leg injury, the 6-foot-4 Kitic had 177 kills in 48 games for a 3.7-per game total that leads the district. She had 28 kills in a match against Galveston this year.
She is also among the district leaders with .71 blocks per game.
Jacinto came from San Antonio. Her specialty is defense. She finished her freshman year with 200 digs and added 196 this season.
She chose Lee College because she liked the scholarship offers and the volleyball program. She also likes being close to the ocean.
Robinson, a middle hitter, is from Beaumont. She chose Lee
College because it’s close to home. Robinson leads the district in blocks with 92 or 1.1 per game. Teammates say she has a natural ability to jump high. She finished her freshman year with 60 kills and 29 blocks.
Ocasio, a setter, came to Lee College from Puerto Rico. This year, she’s been the setter of the week four times. She finished her freshman year with 893 assists and 381 digs and was named to All Conference and All Region XIV teams.
This year, she has 768 assists (fourth in the district) and 387 digs (third) and leads the district with 58 aces.
The four sophomores all play a different position and Johnson says they all offer something different, both on and off the court.
“Academically, they all study and work really hard,” Johnson said. “Christina wants to be a doctor. Tamara and Julisa had to learn a new language, and those things show how hard they work.”
Johnson says as great as her four sophomores are, there is a down side.
“The bad part is, look what I’m losing,” she said. “How do you replace a 6-foot-4 hitter, our star setter, and leaders? You can replace one person the next year but not four. This will be the most difficult group I’ve ever had to replace.”
During their freshman year, the four of them had a language barrier to get over and learned different things about each other’s cultures. Which wasn’t exactly an easy task.
“It was difficult at first, especially since we were all freshmen and didn’t know everything like how the system works here,” Jacinto said.
“You learn a lot of different stuff from each other because we’re from different cultures and religions and speak different languages.”
It took hard work for the four of them to get over that barrier. Now, they’re starting to see that hard work pay off, both on and off the court.
“You just have keep doing the best you can and don’t ever give up and work extra hard,” Robinson said.
“Hard work pays off,” Kitic said. “No matter how hard it might be with friends and teammates, you should invest everything and go for your goals.”
The Lady Rebels are preparing to meet Wharton in the first round of the regional tournament on Wharton’s home court.
The sophomores say they’re confident they can win, but not cocky.
“We beat them in three games so I know it’s possible if we play hard,” Jacinto said. “We know it’s going to be hard and we won’t walk in there with a big head.”
Ocasio said, “We just have work hard and step up.”
Kitic said the team can’t afford to take anyone lightly but they need everybody to do their jobs.
“This is a quality team sport,” she said. “We need offense, we need defense. Everything is connected. We win as a team.”
“We lost some games because hitting was off or defense was off,” Ocasio said. “If someone’s off, it affects our game in a big way.”
The Lady Rebels fell short to San Jacinto twice this year, and the sophomores agree they want another shot at them.
“I want to beat them so bad,” Kitic said. “We lost by two points twice.”
Jacinto said San Jacinto got lucky and believes the Lady Rebels would win if they were to have a rematch. “We had better stats in both games and they still won. It was definitely luck that they won.”
Kitic said, “They always say third game is the lucky game so….,”
So…the Lady Rebels may or may not have a chance to revenge San Jacinto, but they will have a shot at their ultimate goal.
“We want to go to Nationals, point blank,” Kitic said.