West Spotlight: Shaping up
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Moon girls volleyball coach Tonja Ayala and standout player Nicole Moorman watch the action from the sideline during the Mt. Lebanon Tournament.
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The Moon Area High School girls volleyball program has a new coach for the first time in nine years.
Jason Ferri has stepped down after 16 years of coaching, including the past eight at Moon.
"I've been coaching for a long time and felt it was time to take a break," Ferri said.
Former assistant coach Tonja Ayala was hired to replace Ferri.
"Jason asked me if I would help last year," said Ayala, a 1987 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth. "My main function last year was to work with the varsity team on strength and conditioning."
Ayala has plenty of experience in that area. She's an Aerobics and Fitness Association of America-certified personal trainer and a USA Volleyball-certified strength and conditioning instructor.
"The transition from assistant to head coach has gone well," Ayala said. "I'm still going through the feeling out process. One negative is that I only worked with the varsity last year. So I'm not familiar with the junior varsity and junior high teams."
Moon qualified for the WPIAL Class AAA tournament last season after placing third in Section 5-AAA. The Tigers lost to North Allegheny in the first round of the playoffs. Seven players from that squad graduated.
"We have some holes to fill, but we do have our best player back," said Ayala, referring to Nicole Moorman, a 6-foot-1 senior middle hitter who was voted second-team All-WPIAL Class AAA last season.
"Nicole would like to continue her career in college. She's narrowed her search to five schools and hopes to make a decision in October after a couple more visits."
Moorman is joined on the varsity by four others who either started or lettered last season, 5-7 senior outside hitter Nicole Hall, 5-5 defensive specialist Victoria Maxim, 5-7 senior outside hitter Erica Tice and 5-9 junior setter Katie Peters.
First Published September 23, 2011 12:00 am
