The 2005 Bruin volleyball squad has improved drastically since their last season with the team doubling the amount of wins they put up last year in only half as many games.

With the addition of a new position and a strong defense the Bruins have put up a (17-12) record, compared to last years record of (7-23).

The Bruins added a new position, the libero, to their game plan. The libero is a primarily defensive position played by junior Shamara Pinson. This factor has been enormously helpful in improving the team’s overall defense.

The team’s key to success this year is being able to control the ball and tempo of the game.

“We are more controlled this year and we’re keeping positive attitudes,” head coach Shawn Shackelford said.

By practicing hard the girls have improved their play drastically compared to last year’s season and have proved it by being successful.

“This year we have been much more successful. We’ve come a really long way and everybody has improved. We’re practicing harder than we ever have before,” senior Carrie Bennett said.

Another factor of the team’s success this year is team unity.

“We’re really team-oriented off the court. We all hang out together on the weekends,” senior Chassis Salyer said.

The girls placed 2nd in a tournament of 13 local teams. The tournaments diversity exceeded any other so far this year, including public and private schools as well as schools from several different districts in the state of Texas.

Included in these teams were hometown rivals Ozen and Central. Ozen placed first in the tournament and Central clinched the third place spot.

Juniors Katie Shumaker and Shamara Pinson made the All-Tournament team and senior Robyn Cash won the tournament sportsmanship award.

West Orange-Stark came to play finishing first in their bracket. Cathedral Christian High School as well as Monsignor Kelly represented the private schools at the tournament.

Former West Brook player Marian Giles, now Cathedral Christian Warrior said, “Most of the public teams play year round, this is only our third public school tournament and the level of play from public to private schools is a big change.”

Hurricane Rita though, had some effect on this years volleyball season. All varsity district volleyball games are going to be made up on a tightly revamped schedule. All JV and freshman games missed will not be played.

“We were having a really good season but then the hurricane hit and interrupted our rhythm,” freshman player Katy Michaelson said.

West Brook played District 22-5A powerhouses Humble and Spring last week, losing both games.

“Spring and Humble’s season were not interrupted and we missed two and a half weeks of practice and six games,” Coach Scoggins said.

The Bruins are going to have to work extra hard to make up for the practices missed due to Hurricane Rita.

The team will need to answer tonight as they play at Spring Westfield to improve their (1-5) district record.