Serve me up a big piece of humble pie
By BRANDON WRIGHT
Published November 2, 2006
CLEARWATER - I had to see for myself what all the fuss was about.
After watching Clearwater's Channing Salava embarrass countless back row diggers throughout the season with her sizzling jump serve, I wanted to get a first-person perspective. So I put down the tape recorder and scratch pad, lined up across the net and waited.
I should have known better.
From the stands, Salava's ball darts down like a split-finger pitch.
But at court level, it also has a wicked, slider-like tail. I have no volleyball experience unless grade-school tether- ball counts, but I was a baseball catcher in college and figured I could handle it. Despite seeing a Largo player swing at a Salava serve and completely miss twice during districts, I disregarded warnings and let bravado take over.
"I've never seen anything like it," Palm Harbor U.'s Mallory Kiley said. "It's just nasty."
So there I was, standing across the net after a Clearwater practice as Salava rocked back and tossed the ball high in the air. As it floated down she took three steps, rocked from heel to toe on her plant foot, coiled and jumped.
WHACK!
I had planned to catch the first one, but as I flailed to the right and whiffed, my thoughts turned to that Largo player from districts.
"I've never seen anyone serve like her," Clearwater coach and Times 1995 Player of the Year Tracy Sedley said. "It's just pure aggression."
Salava, a left-handed setter, worked on the precise timing and hand motion - she hits under the ball with an open hand and rolls her wrist over top of it while at the peak of her jump - of her serve at a national team camp this summer.
"I wanted a weapon," Salava said.
She found one. Salava recorded 94 aces this season, and her serve has gotten better throughout the year.
"In the beginning of the season, she probably made about as many errors as she did points," PHU coach Tara Kuk said. "But by (districts), it was a different story."
The first ball I tried to return impressed me - but not in a good way. I didn't think it was possible for a volleyball to bounce off a person's forearms as high as this one did.
It banged off the video recording area, which was roughly 20 feet off the floor and 40 feet from me.
The second ricocheted straight back at the net while the third hit all wrists and fired back over my right shoulder.
"She just drops bombs," Sedley said.
No. 8 Clearwater (25-1) will need Salava to keep up her torrid serving pace tonight when it meets No. 1 Plant (25-2) at 7.
As I sit here writing, looking down at my swollen forearm, I truly don't envy the Panther players and realize one very important thing.
I should have known better.
Brandon Wright can be reached at bwright@sptimes.com.