EDITOR’S NOTE: The Atlanta A5 Volleyball Club features more than 300 athletes, including several which are part of national qualifying teams. The following is Part 4 in a series of features about the A5 players who also compete in DeKalb County during the school season.

Winning a national championship did not make Emily Morrison complacent.

The St. Pius X senior and member of the 17-Gary team in the Atlanta A5 Volleyball Club has aspirations to win it all again.

Morrison and her 16-Gabe teammates won the third USA Volleyball national championship in A5 history.

“Winning the national championship last summer was the greatest feeling,” Morrison said. “I still remember slamming the ground with my hand. We are really hungry for another one this summer.”

Morrison said she enjoys the pressure of being one of the top teams in the nation in her age group. USA Volleyball has Open, National and American tournaments in every age group and Morrison’s team won the American division last season.

Morrison said her team moved up from the American division to the National division, but that has not stopped her from aspiring for the top.

“It will be harder, but I think we can do it,” she said. “There will be no teams we can lay back on. We have to give it everything in every game if we want to win another championship.

Morrison said heading into nationals, she is focused on all the minutia of the game.

“I am really focused on every touch of the ball,” she said. “Every little touch on the ball counts and we have to remember that heading to nationals.”

Morrison has played in A5 since she was 13 and she said the reason she keeps coming back is simple.

“What I like about it is that this team is full of my best friends,” she said. “We are all really close. With the stress of practices and school, we just get it and we understand each other.”

Morrison said the coaches at A5 know how to mix fun with discipline to mold the best team possible.