A volleyball tournament that took years of planning finally came to fruition on Saturday at Selma High School.

Dallas County head coach Linda Moore and Selma High School Athletic Director Melissa White organized the first ever Dallas County Volleyball Tournament, which featured Selma, Dallas County, Southside, Ellwood Christian and Keith.

“I’m loving it,” Moore said. “It’s good to see the county teams competing against each other, and I’m glad all the coaches decided ‘let’s do this.’”

Moore’s Hornets won the tournament by defeating Selma High School 25-7, 25-12. Although she wasn’t completely satisfied with how her team played, Moore said the Hornets competed well.

“We still have a lot of things that we have to work on,” Moore said. “I’m proud of the fact that they are playing together as a team. Right now, we are happy where we are.”

The tournament was double elimination. The Hornets won a match against Keith and two against Selma to win the tournament title. The Saints had to win matches against Southside and Keith to play in the championship.

“We are doing much better than we did the other night,” said Selma coach Katasha Turner. “We are serving much better than we did Thursday. We still have to work on our passing and communication and building trust with each other.”

The Saints played Thursday against Linden and Greensboro and lost both matches, but Turner was much happier with Saturday’s performance.

Keith finished third in the tournament after beating Ellwood Christian and Southside in elimination games. The Bears lost to Selma and Dallas County for their two losses.

“It was a great idea to come in and showcase the talent across the county,” said Keith coach Towanna Flennory of the tournament. “It’s good for the community. It brought a lot of fans out.”

Southside finished fourth in the tournament after losses to Selma and Keith. The Panthers revived the school’s volleyball program last season and entering year two, head coach Samantha Henry can already see the team’s progress.

“They’ve improved tremendously. All of our games were runaway games, but I could see there’s going to be some close games and a lot of wins this year,” Henry said.

Ellwood was the first team eliminated. The Eagles lost matches to Keith and Southside.

Ellwood coach Venecia Eaton said she wasn’t hired until Aug. 8, so the team is still playing catch up.

“We need to work on a little bit more fundamentals and communication on and off the floor,” Eaton said.

While there was only one winner, all of the coaches seemed happy with how the tournament went. Not only did it give each team a chance to begin its season close to home, but it also brought out a renewed interest in volleyball.

“We need to make this an annual thing,” Moore said.