Bruiserengineer

 

GPS defeated Tullahoma last night, 68-31.

It is my understanding that Tullahoma was plagued by an illness that was going around the area. That and the fact they had to travel to GPS made for tough going I'm sure.

The Lady Rams are very worthy champions of the 2007 Best of Preps Tournament. They are very well coached and have excellent basketball skills. Congratulations and good luck with the rest of the season.

It was a great tournament and thanks to Tennessee Temple and the Chattanooga Free Press for sponsoring it.

I promise to never ever complain about the Refs here in middle TN again. Not after what I have seen @ the state tournament this year - where do these people come from? It is worse than awful - pathetic! And, they get paid for doing a poor job when they should be fired on the spot! Who is in charge of these people? The only good thing I guess is their awful calls or no calls goes both ways - both teams suffer. Surely the almighty football refs are more selectivly chosen.

I absolutely agree. With four "official" refs working each game you would expect better performance. Wednesday at Blackman was the worst I have ever seen. Nothing was called. It was as if the "down" ref was there only to give the same signal as the "up" ref. The down ref's eyes were following the ball instead of looking for under the net or in the net calls. Lifts and doubles must not have been in the manual these guys were using.

If T$$AA want to save money the best way to go would be to eliminate three of the four officials.

Our overall record against Sectional qualifiers is 13-11. Not a great "record" but we played some tough teams. Several of these were "random" match-ups, in that we met the teams (unscheduled) in weekend tournaments. That's were I feel a team really has the chance to improve by playing in weekend tournaments. Weekend tournaments with other strong teams!

I absolutely agree with your observations. The State Tournament in many ways has the flavor of these week-end tournaments and the competition is the best there is. Those teams that are comfortable playing this format and have seen great competition will have a better chance of advancing.

GPS's record with your criteria; (18-5)

Ooltewah 2-0

ND 1-1

Harpeth Hall 1-0

Franklin 0-1

Red Bank 3-1

Farragut 1-0

Baylor 4-1

Sulivan South 2-0

Morristown E. 1-0

Cookeville 1-0

East Ridge 1-1

Harrison 1-0 (Georgia)

Must all game be played before Thursday of this week??

Do the DII school get top 3 or 4 teams?

Has Father Ryan, BGA, St Bendict, BC already got a spot? If not who will qualify first??

 

My pick is Knox Cat they are on eastern time.

GPS (Div. II East) qualified last night by beating Baylor 3-2

Div II East gets two state slots

Div II Middle and West get three slots each

The "large" "small" classification already exists in Div II for football. I had not heard that this would apply to volleyball. I did hear that they were planning to make some combination of Div. II East with some of Div. II Middle.

The trade offs for TSSAA and its member schools are;

1. Travel (time and expense)

2. Regional competition. Div II East only has three teams that compete in Volleyball.

Brentwood. Really dont think there will be much of a challenge. Franklin is the only TN team to beat them this season, so they may make it close. Independence would have been the team with the best chance to knock them off IMO before they lost their senior OH Powell to injury.

 

Just dont see SS winning it considering they have lost to GPS twice, a team that has lost to A/AA ER and ND already.

 

Cookeville lost to GPS also, so I dont pick them for the same reason.

 

The championship match will be two teams from Brentwoods district whether it be Franklin, Independence, or Centennial going up against Brentwood. If I have to pick now, based on injury, I say Brentwood defeats Franklin for the championship.

Interesting that you are using a loss to GPS as an automatic disqualifier for a team. Equally interesting that you view GPS's losses to East Ridge and ND (only A/AA teams ?!) as the rationale.

In A/AA

District 4

1. Knox Catholic

2. Anderson County

District 5

1. Grace Baptist

2. Boyd Buchanon

District 6

1. Notre Dame

2. East Ridge

In AAA

District 1

1. Sullivan South

2. Bobyns Bennett

District 3

1. Karns

2. Oak Ridge

District 4

1. Farragut

2. Maryville

District 5

1. Cleveland (Playing really well right now)

2. Bradley Central

District 6

1. Red Bank

2. Ooltewah

District 7

1. Cookeville

2. Siegel

District 11 (Gets my vote for the toughest District in the State)

1. Brentwood

2. Franklin

District 15

Germantown (haven't seen them this year but they were great last year)

Division II

East

1. GPS

2. Baylor

Middle

1. Father Ryan

2. BGA

3. Harpeth Hall

West (Really quiet out there; so in alphabetical order)

1. Harding

2. St. Benedict

3. Wild Guess; ECS (great basketball program)

In the battle of the "Blue Teams" GPS came out on top 3-1 (25-19, 25-23, 16-25, 25-22).

For my taste the match was a little sloppy. Lazy free balls that were sent out of bounds or into the net, service errors, etc. Not the caliber of play that either of these teams showed during the Tandem Tournament this past week-end.

Red Bank's blocking was great and it frustrated the GPS hitters. Red Bank's No. 21 was particularly effective.

For GPS; Laughlin looked strong and Gearrin was great in defense.

 

 

better still, when are these kids actually studying and doing homework? on the fly? between road trips? at courtside before the game? not the best atmosphere for learning, imo.

It is an amazing site to watch the GPS players doing math homework in the stands between matches. They have MUCH more discipline than I had in High School (I hope my daughter is not reading this).

I am curious about the feelings of others in the volleyball community with regard to the number of matches played at week end tournaments. I attended the Lavergne event and left physically and mentally drained on Saturday night. I can't imagine how the players must have felt. I believe the Siegel girls played 20 games on Saturday, most in a hot box gym with no air conditioning and extreme humidity. I would guess that a player would be much more prone to fatigue related injuries.

 

The High school season is shorter than that of college, but many teams play more games in a month and a half than their colligate counterparts do in a season. I realize that the schools decide on the schedule, but I think tournament play is too grueling from the number of matches necessary to advance to the championship. I believe they need a simple seeding system not requiring 3 or 4 games, or extend the play to 3 days.

I sympathize with your concern.

The dilemma that tournament organizers and attendees face include;

1. Teams want to be guaranteed a minimum number of matches. At the recent Tenn. Tandem tournament a "cross over pool" match was added to insure all teams got the minimum number of matches.

2. The lodging costs for out of town teams can be prohibitive if the tournament extends to 3 days.

3. I think the TSSAA definitions of "play days" and Tournaments mean that rather than play for a fixed 2 games per match you have to play them all out to the finish. (although I am not totally sure of this)

In the final analysis;

1. How many competitions does a team need to get ready for the playoffs?

2. When does the risk of burnout or injury overwhelm the fun of playing in these tournaments?

3. Is the spacing of the regular matches and tournaments leading up to the playoffs thought through enough?

She is a stubborn one, that one is. She has a goal to play on Senior night if not before. Oct. 5th is Senior night. That will be two and a half weeks since the injury. She is very determined. Who knows, Mind over Matter!?! We are hoping and praying for a quick recovery. Not much season left. Miracles still happen!!

 

The GPS family also prays for a quick recovery. Grace has a very talented team that will be a big factor in the A/AA playoff picture.

Who's out?

Deborah Lowry was out when we played them last week. She had an ankle injury. I don't know her exact status but I think she might be out for a few weeks.

BE, I also updated the GPS schedule, it should be current. Seems to match what was reported (35-5).

Greatly appreciated. Yes the Dig To Win alumnae performed very well on Saturday. Lindsey Bibbee (Baylor) looks stronger than ever despite her knee injury which limited her play during the afternoon matches.

It was a classic Baylor v GPS match; very close.

Father Ryan wins Finals in 2. Here's article:

http://preps.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...-1/PREPSFACTORY

 

All Tournament Team:

Emily Teegarden, a 6-foot-1 Western Kentucky commitment, was named tournament MVP. Erin Bachus and Marie Mullins made the all-tournament team, along with Pelham's Whitney Billings and Whitney Hudson and Ooltewah's Whitney Wulf.

Congratulations to Whitney! We will have to get together for a scouting session on Father Ryan as they figure to be the favorite in Division II.

Silver Bracket Results

Preliminaries

Boyd beats Soddy 2-0

Houston beats Walker Valley 2-1

East Ridge beats Boyd 2-0

Karns beats Houston 2-1

East Ridge beats Karns 2-0

East Ridge is Silver Bracket Champion

Gold Bracket Results

Preliminaries

Westminster beats Cleveland 2-0

Harrison beats Red Bank 2-0

Baylor beats Westminster 2-0

GPS beats Harrison 2-1 (22-25, 25-23, 15-10)

GPS beats Baylor 2-0 (28-26, 25-18)

GPS is Gold Bracket Champion

All Tournament Team

Baylor: Meghan Sledge; Whitney Anderson, Brittany Scoggins

GPS: Hannah Shadrick, Jennifer Laughlin, Cayce Gearrin

Thanks for the updates, Bruiserengineer. Somewhat surprised that East Ridge did not make Gold Bracket - I guess because of loss to Cleveland in the crossover match.

The big problem for East Ridge today was that they had two very strong teams from Atlanta in their bracket. Harrison and Westminster both beat East Ridge in Pool Play.

Each team played a cross over pool match.

GPS over Walker Valley 2-0 (25-13, 25-14)

Baylor over Soddy Daisy 2-0 (25-9, 25-18)

Harrison over Boyd 2-1 (26-28, 25-13, 15-6)

Red Bank over Houston 2-0 (25-18, 25-18)

Cleveland over East Ridge 2-1 (18-25, 25-22, 15-7)

Westminster over Karns 2-1 (25-22, 28-30, 15-9)

ReSeeding for Single Elimination Tournament

Gold Bracket

1. Baylor

2. GPS

3. Harrison

4. Cleveland

5. Red Bank

6. Westminster

Silver Bracket

1. East Ridge

2. Karns

3. Houston

4. Boyd B.

5. Walker Valley

6. Soddy Daisy

Additional Scores;

Pool A

Karns over Boyd 2-0 (25-18, 25-23)

GPS over Red Bank 2-1 (25-16, 19-25, 15-9)

Pool B

Houston over Walker Valley 2-1 (27-25, 14-25, 15-11)

Baylor over Cleveland 2-0 (27-25, 25-17)

Pool C

Harrison over Soddy Daisy 2-0 (25-15, 25-11)

Westminster over Soddy Daisy 2-0 (25-18, 25-16)

Harrison over East Ridge 2-0 (25-10, 25-21)

Additional Results;

Pool A

Red Bank over Boyd B. 2-1 (25-9, 23-25, 15-9)

Pool B

Cleveland over Walker Valley 2-1 (25-16, 19-25, 15-9)

Pool C

Westminster over East Ridge 2-0 (25-23, 25-22)

Results as of 12:09 PM

Pool A

GPS defeats Boyd 2-0 (25-14, 25-18)

Red Bank defeats Karns 2-0 (25-7, 25-20)

GPS defeats Karns 2-0 (25-13, 25-14)

Pool B

Baylor defeats Walker Valley 2-0 (25-9, 25-15)

Cleveland defeats Houston 2-0 (25-13, 25-19)

Baylor defeats Houston 2-0 (25-19, 25-15)

Pool C

East Ridge defeats Soddy Daisy 2-0 (28-26, 25-15)

Harrison defeats Westminster 2-1 (25-20, 17-25, 15-9)

Note; The Harrison and Westminster teams looked great. This is by far the toughest bracket in the tournament.

The Power Varsity division of this tournament features the following teams;

Pool A

GPS

Red Bank

Karns

Boyd Buchanon

Pool B

Baylor

Cleveland

Houston

Walker Valley

Pool C

East Ridge

Harrison

Westminster (Atlanta area)

Soddy Daisy

I will try to provide updates during the day.

The Power Varsity division of this tournament features the following teams;

Pool A

GPS

Red Bank

Karns

Boyd Buchanon

Pool B

Baylor

Cleveland

Houston

Walker Valley

Pool C

East Ridge

Harrison

Westminster (Atlanta area)

Soddy Daisy

I will try to provide updates during the day.

GPS picked up the enthusiasim to play Div. II East Region rival Webb tonight. They won in three (25-8, 25-16, 25-18)

Junior Hannah Shadrick did the most damage with 11 kills. Other offensive stats;

Heather Parman 6K, 3 Aces

Jasmine Brown 6K

Marrisa Thompson 4 K and a block

Jennifer Laughlin 2K and 4 Aces

Camille Campbell 3 Aces

Danna Myatt 1 K, 1B

Catherine Garvey 1A

Mary Beth Booker 1A

Cayce Gearrin 1 A

GPS got into their "Ball Control Mode" early. Cayce and Camille distributed the ball well and GPS never looked back.

The Spartans have lots of freshmen and sophomores (10 in all) that will only get better in the coming years. Sara Blair (senior), was the offensive power tonight. She had 6 kills and an ace. Emily Dupree (senior) had three blocks and an ace. Faith Dupree (sophomore) had a pair of kills and 2 blocks. Santana Ewers (freshman) had a pair of aces. Kendal Hill (sophmore) had an ace.

GPS's championship at the Pick-O-Dixie tournament was extra special since it gave Paul his 500th victory.

Here is the link to the story in the Chattanoogan.

Chattanoogan article