Tawa’s Dots: The ball may be inflated, but Venice’s home record is not

This is “Dots,” VolleyballMag.com’s weekly look at 10 things in high school volleyball, past or present, that interest me and hopefully will interest you. Look for Dots every Tuesday until the last high school state championship in November:

• Players at Buda Hays High School (TX) report being subjected to racial slurs from the home student section while playing a volleyball match last week at New Braunfels high School. Students were accused of using the N-word throughout the game and while the players were leaving after the match. The students were allegedly warned to “watch your mouths” but no one was ejected from the gym. The school district has since apologized for any improper behavior on the part of its students.

Ironically, the Hays players all had written the number “3” on their hands in support of Duke sophomore Rachel Richardson, who leveled a similar accusation at BYU fans following an August 26 match.

• Marian of Bloomfield Hills won the 2021 Michigan large-class state championship with a 53-1 record. Spain Park won the 2021 Alabama large-class state championship with a record of 47-4.

Arundel captured the Maryland large-class state title in 2021 with a record of 20-1. St. Mark’s won the Delaware all-class state title last fall with a record of 18-0.

Why the disparities in matches played? Each state association regulates the number of matches teams can play in a season. Some allow too many matches; some too few.  Bottom line: your high school experience can vary wildly depending on the state you’re playing in.

• St. James of Lenexa, Kansas, a two-time national champion during my tenure running PrepVolleyball.com, is off to a 6-0 start. The Class 5A Thunder have defeated the No. 3 team in Nebraska, Papillion-La Vista South; the two-time defending Kansas 3A champions, Heritage Christian; and top 6A school Washburn Rural, among its wins.

St. James wins because it dominates the first two contacts. The Thunder have four back row studs, from libero Mya Bolton to DS’s Heidi Devers, Lauren Brown and Katelyn Blessing. And their setter is 6-0 sophomore Reese Messer, perhaps the best sophomore setter in the nation. You may remember her from the Dynasty 16 Black team that was winning all of those matches.

The team also has its fair share of effective attackers, led by junior middle Julia Headley. Kate McKnight, Ava Spachek and Ella Goodwin are three others with a knack for scoring.

St. James started…