Four teams confirmed their places in the knockout round of the JaVA/Kingston and St Andrew Phillip Greenland Developmental Volleyball Competition in Tuesday’s preliminary round of matches, held at Jamaica College.

In Group A, Clan Carthy Primary confirmed their spot by defeating Franklin Town Primary 17-11 to place second in the group on four points, behind Jessie Ripoll Primary on six points. Franklin Town ended on two points. Elletson Road Primary, who were also scheduled to play in this group, did not show up for their matches.

In Group B, Tarrant Primary remained unbeaten, defeating Maxfield Primary

25-9, winning the Group with 12 points. Dallas Primary and Junior High played and won two matches on the day, defeating Allman Hill Primary 20-14 before getting the better of Maxfield 23-10. Dallas ended second in the group on 10 points. St Patrick (eight), Maxfield (six), and Allman Hill (four) were third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

The competition was scheduled to continue in Group C yesterday at Mountain View Primary, with the home team hosting Greenwich All-Age and St Francis Primary. The group will conclude their preliminary round of matches today at Excelsior High School. Currently, St Francis and Mountain View occupy the top two spots on six and four points, respectively.

Half-Way-Tree Primary and Maverley Primary are joint third on one point each.

The knockout round of the competition will take place at Kingston College next Tuesday starting at 2:00 pm.

JaVA is seeking to use the primary-level school competition to help stimulate increased participation in volleyball at the secondary school level.

Major Warrenton Dixon, JaVA’s school development manager, highlighted the reason for the initiative by pointing out that while 57 primary-level schools participated in volleyball in 2013, less than 20 high schools participated in the ISSA-organised competition.

“This means that we are not maximising on our investment; the majority of our children are going into high schools that do not play volleyball. We therefore need to assist ISSA and the high schools to improve this situation, especially given the rapid growth rate of the Under-13 competition. We are hoping that our direct interface with these high schools will help us to achieve our goal in this regard,” he ended.