alwest

any word on rosters? the event is in 10 days.

Can anyone tell me why the Garcia's father is being quoted in the article? Those girls played well during the tournament, but they didnt dominate in the fashion that everyone is making it out to be. They played a tough semi-final round that could have gone either way against Ryan.

Looks like the ryan match was a good one. The Garcia's won by a break. It must have been a good one. The ryan girls were both on the volleyball team and I recall they were both very athletic.

Careful What You Say: After today's final, Webb players said that Hutchison comments on Thursday made for good locker room bulletin board material and incentive for victory.

 

Leavell-Donoghue, when walking past the Garcia's after the semis, were heard commenting that the finals would be much easier than the semis. The Hutchison tandem rallied to defeat Caitlin Casey-Samantha Lewis (Harpeth Hall), 2-6, 7-6, 6-2, in the semis.

 

This is garbage. You can not seriously print this crap. You have a kid who ease drops on an opposing team's conversation and puts some serious spin on it to try and get recognized. If you want to try and paint some kids in a negative way, why did you neglect to mention how the one of the sisters threw a royal temper tantrum during the team final, receiving a code violation after throwing her racquet and screaming at her opponents and nearby fans.

Or for that matter that their father, also quoted in the article, was removed from the regional championships for coaching his daughters. a despicable act that he should be ashamed of.

the "usual suspect" was removed. I won't name him but he lives in Knoxville, his two daughters are the top doubles team and would win without the on-court coaching.

Alot of this starts with the coach who should have better control of the parents of the players. That team has a reputation for calling the lines very tight. The joke among the jr tennis players in the west is that the school motto is "if in doubt its out".

Could it have been that father of the girls doubles team? Rumor has it that he has been known to do this in the past.

All I heard is that it was a Webb dad. Pretty sad and unsportsmanlike if it is true. If so tssaa should ban him from the site. of course they won"t.

TSSAA D2 AA Girls Sub-State

 

Hutchison 4 Baylor 0

 

Hayly Humphreys (Hutch) def Katie Thornton 6-0, 6-1

Maggie Donoghie (Hutch) def Erica Marshall 7-5, 6-2

Caroline Orr (Hutch) vs. Sarah Berchuck (match stopped bc Hutchison clinched 4 wins)

Maggie Leavell (Hutch) def Kelly Scruggs 6-3, 6-3

Lee Leavell (Hutch) def Lindsay Yates 6-3, 7-5

 

Records: Hutchison 12-0 , Baylor 9-5

Great win for Hutchison. Any word on the other girls substate matches?

Sounds like that the spring fling will be very interesting. What was the score of the Lipman and Fickey match? How was that a semi-final match and not a final?

 

Was the parent from Webb?

I think you are right about the school.

Looks like there will be a great Spring Fling in the "Boro.

We heard one of the parents was removed on Saturday for coaching his kids. Any truth? How does the tssaa police this? are there usta officials onsite and do usta rules apply?

Great update. How did things go on Sunday?

McCallie sure looks strong.

Any thoughts on who is favored on the girls side? Baylor? GPS?

I would guess that your post means a no vote for a T recognition. Maybe you would like to post your own. JL put together a group of people, they voted. There is some validity for disagreement but it was their votes. Now the next vote will have another controversy and they will be along different lines. You'll be back and as with your District Recognition, there will be a controversy and who knows, you may be right.

JL's group must have had limited knowledge of the DII teams. The Tennessean all mid state teams are heavily weighted to the big schools. There are very talented players the DII schools that were overlooked Ensworth had a couple of very worthy players as did HH (Andrews). In addition to those Ryan's Caire was also snubbed in the process. Maybe three players from one team is too much. I am sure there are others as well. Just a few at the DII level I have seen play.

If playing "Impact" was a criteria why wouldn't a player like Carolyn Caire of Fr. Ryan make the list. She seems just as worthy as some of the second and third team recipients. She played at least 3 years at Impact on their 16/17/18 -1"s teams and was a DII state all tournament team member. There are many worthy players that don't get acknowledged. It is a thankless job to try to formulate such teams and you just have to draw the line somewhere. Harpeth Hall and Ensworth had some fine players left off the team as well. This list seems to have a heavy slanting to the publics vs DII's as well.

Congrats to siegel and Blackman for handling things as well as they did. To the TSSAA I truely hope you realize after this week that a high school gym is no place to hold a State Championship. A high school gym with 2 courts set up allows no room for fans to come and go. Teams playing on the first court at siegel had to stop their games to allow for fans from the 2nd court to file out when they were done playing. Talk about a momentum buster. Officials were constantly having to play traffic cops instead of concentrating on their job as line judge. There was barely enough room for players to step back and serve let alone jump serve, then to have the fans right on your back, lets add a little more stress to these players. One other probelm I felt was unfair. Div II played their championship games at the same time, while AA and AAA had the luxury of playing on center court. It is an unfair advantage to Div II players to have had to play their Championship games in such close quarters -- walls less than five feet from the court, screaming fans right on top of you. Maybe they enjoyed it but I think they deserved better. Congrats to ALL of the participants of this years State Championships. TSSAA I truely hope that some day you realize that volleyball should not be teated like your forgotten stepchild, the players, coaches and fans deserve better than what you gave them this year...... For 2009 why don't you start looking at Lipscomb and Belmont now, don't wait till a month before next years tournament to start planning the tournament.

 

siegel coaches, players, parents and all other volunteers -- Thank you, you done good!

Very well said. I am sure I will repeat some of the same below.

The setup for Div II finals was an embarrasement and insult to the high quality of play these teams delivered. After watching their match, I would put GPS and Ryan up against any of the elite AA and AAA programs in the state. To jam them into a corner for their moment in the sun is inexcusable. Same for Harding and St Georges. It was grwet to see the large energetic crowds for AA and AAA semis and finals.

To have fans so close to the court that they could interfere/influence play is inexcusable. AA and AAA players didn't have to experience such conditions in their final matches. Controlling enthusiastic teenagers is a chore no doubt and I thought most school administrators did a great job controlling their students. I witnessed a Ryan administrator meet with his students before the match with GPS instructing them to support their tema and not to harrass the oposition. From my vantage point they followed his advice - though I confess iI wasn't close enough to hear everything they said. I did observe some very enthusiatic GPS supporters ( students and parents) crossing the line of decency, in my humble opinion, aggressively shaking pom poms and screaming into the opponents servers who were no more than a few feet away. As adults we must do better. I know you would not want your high school child to be the recipient of such treatment. It is afterall a game. It was disappointing to me to see the GPS headmaster (I was told it was him) not address his students and parents on the point. Maybe I am old school and believe that fans should pull for their team to play well and not insert yourself into the game in a negative way.

TSSAA must complete a post mortum review of this year's tourney. How can we as supporters of volleyball allow this organization to treat these young ladies as second class. There are many lessons to be learned from the mess that was the 2008 State Volleyball Tournament - Venue quality, officiating quality and consistency, score keeping controversies, Div II format -I still don't get why its different than AA and AAA.

Congratulations to all the players, coaches and schools that made it to the "Boro. You had successful seasons and should be proud of your efforts. I look for to a great 2009.

Siegel and Blackman staff and families. Thank you for hosting. You represented your programs and schools well and should be proud of all that you did. Everyone I encountered was friendly and helpful.

I was able to see most of the action on Friday. Not having watched Wed or Thurs action but from what I saw Friday, these young ladies are all very deserving of this recognition and are tremendous athletes and leaders for their teams.

Congrats to all competitors and coaches. It was truly an exciting and emotional day of volleyball from start to finish.

Does the format require GPS to beat Ryan twice or is it a single game final matchup?

Looks to be shaping up to be a great final four. This weekend's match will be interesting. I think it is the year of the STING!! Sorry Bruisers and Irish.

Should I assume the price of admission will be reduced since the cost of the venue is lower than when the tourney was held at MTSU?

How is the DII girls competition, GPS and Webb are usually strong . Clare Bartlett of GPS has signed with Virginia. Any competition in the west or Nashville areas? Gabriela Rangel of JPII has signed with Ole Miss. ? Anyone other strong players?

Both classifications of D2 should not be put together. The level of play was obviously on a whole different level. Some of the kids do not belong on the First team with the D2-AA level. Not that they don't on their own first team, but not over some of these other kids that are that much better.

I would agree. They have different tourneys so why not different all state teams? While Harding had a great year and the girls on the list are deserving of recognition for their success it seems hard to believe they all had better years than some of the D2-AA players left off of the list. This list says the Harding had a deeper team than D2-AA runnerup Father Ryan and those 5 were better than all but 4 players from FR,BGA,HH,BA JPII, Knox Webb and St C. I don't know if that is the case.

The final match was a doozie with Ryan blowing out in game 1 25-14. Game 2 pretty much was the decisive game as GPS led 24-16, after a sideout Ryan libero Ellen Mullins served 10 straight points and the Irish won 26-24.

Game 3 was a toe to toe heaveyweight fight. At 23-22 Ryan setter Marie Mullins won a joust on an overpass with ther GPS Middle then a block ended it for Ryan 25-22. These two could esily meet again.

 

All Tournament

Lisa Howard HHALL

LAura Barrier Ensworth

Brown and Anderson #5(?) GPS

Linsie Wiesman FRyan

Ellen Mullins FRYAN

Marie Mullins FRYAN MVP

State sectional qualifiers for D-II Middle region

 

1. father Ryan

2. GPS

3.harpeth Hall

4. Ensworth

5. baylor

 

All games Saturday Oct 20 at 7:00 pm

Baylor AT Ryan

Memphis 3 @ GPS

Harpeth Hall @ Memphis # 2

Ensworth @ Memphis #1

Looks like the Mullins sisters ruled the court!

GPS was #1 seed

Ryan n 3

25-13, 26-24, 25-21

The Lady Irish had stellar performances from all 9 players who played in the match. A total team victory.

Wow. Pretty impressive scores against a well coached and talented GPS team. Game 2 looks like it was a good one. Good win for Ryan.

HHALL always seems to be in the mix come tourney time. Are they the sleeper?

Those girls DO have a great spirit and chemistry. Young energetic underclassmen who want their trophy and a couple of seasoned veterans leading the charge.

 

PS Deanna Wycheck made All-Region regualr season as well as the others mentioned.

I hope our little Memphis girls can stick with what sounds like some good middle tenn vballers. Wasn't GPS the No 1 seed? Must have been a good final. What was the score? Any superstar performances in the finals?