THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 4, 1997 TAG: 9702040474
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: ATHLETES OF THE WEEK
SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COURTLAND LENGTH: 36 lines
If you're a volleyball player and you're not even five feet tall, you set, you develop a strong serve and you hurl your little body across the floor to make saves.
But you don't kill anything. The net's eight-feet-six-inches high. You just can't.
Now you tell me, says Southampton's Kristie Keeter.
``I don't know if I'm a good jumper. I just get up there and hit it,'' said Keeter, a 4-11 junior who stunned Franklin by pounding the ball away three times in a three-game victory last week. ``But you should have seen the expressions on the other girls' faces.''
Of course, the Broncos didn't flinch when 5-2 Chanette Gary also burned them for three kills, that's old hat in the Bay Rivers District. Gary's three kills against Franklin gave her 55 on the year.
Considerable practice, exceptional leaping ability - both girls bound off the floor as though someone lit a match under them - and sound fundamentals have turned these pint-sized players into front-row phenoms.
Still, folks who are getting their first look at the Southampton team can't help casting a wary eye toward coach Diane Seward.
``When we set Kristie, people look at us like we've lost our minds,'' Seward said. ``The Franklin girls didn't even try to block her. They backed off the net. They couldn't believe it.''
Keeter's made believers out of opponents all year. And she gives a lot of the credit to Gary, a senior, the team captain and Keeter's pint-sized role model. ILLUSTRATION: Shanette Gary, left, and Kristie Keeter