bravevols

It would be great to know where some of these players have signed...from the southeastern area, I know that Hildebrand and Loftin have signed/committed to Gardner Webb, while Shaughnessy and Sumida have signed with Lee University. Another Lee University signee, Sarah Davis, libero, was left off. While she was a one year libero (had been a setter previous years), she was certainly a major factor in Soddy Daisy's strong finish and 53-11 season. She finished with 287 more digs (1001) and 37 more aces (104) than Cutter which makes one wonder if in fact Knoxville votes do carry more weight? Loren Bennett from Ooltewah also should have been considered among the elite setters. She has signed with Trevecca.

Congratulations to a much-deserved player. McCombs is a class-act and will have a super career at MTSU.

Independence MCombs signs a Volleyball contract to play at MTSU this coming year. It is one of numerous seniors that have gotten Volleyball scholarships with MTSU>

The Chattanooga Times Free Press announced the area's Best of Preps last week. The most outstanding players in the area are Soddy Daisy's Rachel Shaughnessy (MB, MVP), Sarah Davis (libero), Baylor's Nicole Sumida (MB), Rachel Travis (OH), Signal Mountain's Callie Hildebrand (OH), GPS's Tory Kemp (S, RH), Sale Creek's Erin Hill (S, RH), and Ooltewah's Loren Bennett (S, OH). Much deserved Coach of the Year was Sale Creek's Debbie Hill. Several of these have already signed to play in college. Shaughnessy, Davis and Sumida have all signed with Lee University, Hildebrand signed with Gardner-Webb, and Bennett has committed to Trevecca. Congratuations to all these girls, many of which we should also see on the All-State team.

I just want to give a shout out to all the teams from Chattanooga that participated in the state tournament. Chattanooga was represented well with 5 schools in 4 divisions. Each team that went won at least one game. So congratulations to East Hamilton, Soddy Daisy, Red Bank, Sale Creek and Baylor. The teams and their fans have a lot to be proud of.

Of all the games that I watched this week at the State Tournament the Farragut vs siegel match was quite possible the best match played all week. It was a tight hard fought match for all 5 games. For most of the 5 games the score was within 2 or 3 points. The girls on both teams fought like true champions and left everything they had out on the floor and the fans were cheering like crazy for their teams. This is what top level high school volleyball is about. Leaving it all out on the floor and playing with all their ability and heart.

100% agreement! Sale Creek has made a name for itself and Coach Debbie Hill is to be greatly commended for her patience, perseverance, and commitment to a program that struggled for years, but is now a force in A to be reckoned with. Although several seniors will leave, the program is strong starting at the top, and next year, Erin Hill will return to lead a program that should repeat and go even further! Great season and congratulations to a coach and a group of outstanding young ladies.

Siegel is a wonderful team and deserved to be where they were on Thursday. They defeated Soddy Daisy earlier in the year at the Brentwood tournament, and Soddy Daisy was certainly ready to even the score. Siegel has some great hitters who pounded the ball, as does Soddy Daisy. Hitters for SD were on target and on fire, but a big key to the success this year, and especially on this day was the backrow defense that left no doubt that SD's young freshman and outstanding senior libero deserve a big hand for their composure and skills on the backcourt.

MURFREESBORO — A month ago, few felt Siegel would be playing a match on Day 2 of the Class AAA TSSAA state volleyball tournament. But an incredible postseason run propelled the Lady Stars into the final tourney of the year.

 

That run ended Thursday night at Blackman High as Siegel (36-18) fell in four games (14-25, 25-22, 13-25, 21-25) to Soddy-Daisy. The Lady Stars had kept their season alive earlier in the day by defeating the Lady Admirals in five games (23-25, 26-24, 22-25, 25-20, 15-13).

"We felit like about four weeks ago we wouldn't be in this position," Siegel coach Ann Mullins said. "But the chemistry, the leadership from the girls on this team, that was all on them. We did as well as we should have done."

Siegel's two matches somewhat mirrored each other. The Lady Stars were able to bounce back from some early struggles to defeat Farragut in five games in the morning, but could not find the same formula against Soddy-Daisy.

In the first game against Soddy-Daisy, Siegel trailed by as many as 13 points and were on the wrong end of an 11-0 run that ended at 22-10. The Lady Stars put together a 5-0 run of their own but it was not enough as the Lady Trojans closed the opening game with a 3-0 run.

Siegel came back from three five-point deficits and tied the game three times (15, 16 and 19) before going on a 5-3 run, including two kills by senior Maggie Smith, to grab the Game 2 victory.

The Lady Stars lead 8-7 in the third game, but Soddy-Daisy countered by outscoring them 18-5 and taking the 2-1 lead in the match.

The Lady Trojans built a 10-4 lead in the fourth game before Siegel bounced back with a 13-6 run to take its first lead since 8-7 a game earlier. But Soddy-Daisy came right back with a 9-4 run to close out the game and the match.

"I think, emotionally, you can only ask so much of these girls every match," Mullins said. "You can go five games once, but doing it two times in a row is nearly impossible. I thought we could come back in the fourth game, but four errors in a row just came at the wrong time."

"I think everyone knew we had to give everything we had," senior libero Becca Cutter added. "I feel like there was a lot of emotion and a lot of pressure. We're a young team, and we couldn't handle it. But we did give everything we could."

Against Soddy-Daisy, Smith had 13 kills in the match. Trevecca signee Caroline Gay had 37 assists. Cutter collected 31 digs. Carlton Gay had 10 kills.

Soddy-Daisy was paced by the senior duo of Kelsey Nunley with 27 kills and 16 digs and Rachel Shaughnessy's 16 kills.

Against Farragut, Smith led Siegel with 32 kills. Carlton Gay had 17 kills and 15 digs. Cutter had 31 digs again. Caroline Gay had 63 assists.

Smith scored Siegel's first four points in the fifth game on kills, and the Lady Stars held onto the lead until Farragut grabbed it at 13-12. Cutter tied it with a kill and Smith registered two kills in a row as Siegel secured the victory.

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This was a great game played by two great teams and of all of the teams that I have seen this year SD and Indy have the best defenses of any team in the state. There were so many balls picked up by these two teams that would have hit the floor against a lesser defense. Indy has an all state libero but I would put the libero from Soddy up against her any day. These two girls were throwing their bodies all over the court the entire game. SD's other defenders played great as well and the little freshman has a very bright future in front of her. It is always the hitters that get the glory and most of the accolades but a great defense from the block to the dig needs to be clicking for any team to win especially at that level of competition. Congratulations to both of these teams. Soddy Daisy girls will look back one day and realize that they took the Soddy Daisy volleyball program to places that it had never gone before and they should be so very proud.

Look on the schedule "State of Tennessee Women's Volleyball Championship" on this site and it will give you the 1:30 matchup tomorrow and all of the others. many of us will be calling in the results on the scoreboard on this site after its over.

They play Independence in the first round.

last night East hamilton upset Red Bank 3-0

What a great win for East Hamilton. They have fought hard all year and deserve the accolades that they are earning. It was great to see that the defensive players are finally getting some respect. Katie Loftin, East Hamiltons Libero won the MVP for the tourny and over at Soddy Daisy, Sarah Davis the libero also won the MVP for that region also.