Missy Blackshire Ferris Year: Junior Sport: Volleyball Position: Middle Blocker

Missy Blackshire’s volleyball game is going straight down.

For a high school player with a jump serve, that’s quite a compliment.

“For a lot of girls in high school, a jump serve is not like an attack,” Ferris coach Stacey Ward said. “She jumps high enough to get the trajectory on it, so it’s a down serve. Others have an arc.”

Most everything else the Saxons’ 5-foot-11, junior middle blocker sends across the net is headed down, quickly.

Blackshire had 40 kills and 17 aces in six matches as Ferris won the championship of the 32-team Action Sportswear Crossover Classic last Saturday.

“It was fun,” said Blackshire, considering that the top-ranked Saxons had opened the tournament with a league win over rival Lewis and Clark. “It was fun the whole day. It was exciting to play all those teams.

Ward said, “I think she just loves to play volleyball. She jumps well, she’s very quick and she covers the net very well. That’s what you look for in a middle blocker. She has a good work ethic. She never gets tired of practice.”

Blackshire, the state 800-meter champ as a sophomore, knows how to keep things in perspective.

“We just take it one match at a time. We make it a goal to improve every match,” she said. “We’ve done a lot of good things already. (State) would be like icing on the cake.” , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo