The Nansemond-Suffolk Academy volleyball team may have finished with a 5-12 record for the 2002 season. But, as coach Randy Davis pointed out Monday at the season-ending banquet, their accomplishments showed a big improvement.

&uot;We jumped 500 percent from a team that only won one game two seasons ago,&uot; said Davis, in his third year of leading the Saint spikers. &uot;We measure success by the improvement that the team shows over the course of the season, and this was a terrific year. The guys all played hard, and we appreciated the effort they put forth.&uot;

With six players graduating in May, Davis will need some extra help putting together a dominating force next season. &uot;Myself and the underclassmen on this team will have to do a great job of recruiting next year.&uot;

Co-captains Ben Boone and Kevin Eure, along with Neal Eike, Orman Upton, Brandon Winslow, and Allen Bynum, played their final game for NSA last Thursday, falling to Greenbrier Christian Academy in the opening round of the TCIS tournament (the Gators eventually won the tournament). Scorekeepers Nicole Edwards and Chrissy Connito are also in their senior year.

Winslow, the only Saint to achieve All-TCIS honors (he made the second team), was voted the co-Most Outstanding Player along with Eure.

&uot;This year was a great learning experience for me,&uot; said the senior Saint, who played with the team for only a single season.

&uot;There was a fun group of guys, and volleyball is the goods (a fun sport)!&uot;

NSA also awarded a Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. Davis explained the difference between the two. &uot;The Most Valuable Player is usually awarded to the guys with the highest stats,&uot; he said, &uot;but that’s not always true. Our Most Valuable Player is the one guy that the team has to have on the court all the time. When he’s out, the team isn’t nearly as good. He may not lead the team in every category, but he can play every position, and holds the team together.&uot;

For the season consecutive year, Eure was named the team’s MVP.

&uot;This is my fifth year, but I wish I had another,&uot; he said. &uot;The coach is really good, and all the players were nice.&uot;