Kate Ruffalo, a player from Nebraska Elite and Elkhorn South HS, celebrates unequivocally.
NDP plays Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard tonight in a key league matchup. (7:15 p.m.)
PrepVolleyball.com presents too much good stuff in this week’s Court Report. . .
No. 1 Mercy falls! Top-ranked Mercy Academy, which ascended to best in nation status on the strength of tourney titles at the LIVT and Berkeley Premier and a four-set win over Assumption on Sept. 10, has lost its first match of the 2013 season after 29 wins. The Jaguars fell on the road to Assumption. 23-25, 27-25, 26-24, 25-19, last night in a clash of Louisville’s best. Assumption (25-6), currently No. 19 nationally, was PrepVolleyball’s pre-season No. 1 team and last week won the Asics Challenge in Chicago.
Alyssa Cavanaugh and Hannah Moore combined for 31 kills in the win. Setter Alexa Filley also shined for Assumption, with 42 assists, seven kills and one huge match-clinching block, as did the Rockets’ signature defense. Courtney Crable, the 2012 Kentucky Gatorade POY, led Mercy with 15 kills. Libero Nikki Koval also played well for the Jaguars, whom Assumption coach Ron Kordes proclaimed as the best team he has faced all year.
What does this mean for the national rankings? Well, either St. James or Torrey Pines will ascend to the top spot. Torrey will need to win its own Asics California Challenge, however, which is a daunting task. Mercy remains in the running for the title, as it has split with Assumption and may play the Rockets one more time if both get to the state tournament. The Woodlands is an exceptional team and could sneak into the top spot before season’s end, becoming the second Texas team in three years to claim the national title.
In other action from Thursday… Brentwood won a top 25 battle with Tennessee rival Ravenwood for the District 11-AAA championship. Predictably, the match, the fourth between the teams this year, went the limit, just like the previous three meetings. Brentwood’s five-set win evened the series at 2-2 this year. Setter Hunter Thompson, libero Piper Cleveland and OH Sarah Tuttle were catalysts in the win.
The teams split eight matches last year. Four of them went a full five games, including the Tennessee state AAA championship, which Ravenwood won.
Toledo St. Ursula, the top-ranked Division I school in Ohio, captured its third straight Three Rivers Athletic Conference championship by relying on its stellar defense in a sweep of Toledo Notre Dame. The Arrows (21-0) will be looking for a fifth unbeaten regular season in the past 13 years when they close the regular season at home on Saturday versus Dublin Coffman. TSUA defeated Coffman for the state title in 2010, a year in which the Arrows lost only once.
In Indiana play, Yorktown pushed national No. 22 New Castle to five sets, rallying from two sets down, but the Trojans prevailed thanks to 36 kills from senior Lauryn Gillis on Senior Night at New Castle Fieldhouse.
No. 23 Redondo Union won its second straight match with Yaasmeen Bedart-Ghani in the lineup, getting had seven kills and four aces from the Texas recruit in a road sweep of tough Palos Verdes.
No. 42 Menlo improved to 17-4 with a sweep of Harker. The Knights have won 11 matches in a row since the 6-4 start that dropped them from the first in-season national rankings.
No. 52 Dana Hills swept past Mission Viejo in league play. The Dolphins are without superstar hitter Tia Scambray. Scambray and three other high schoolers, freshman Lexi Sun of Santa Fe Christian and juniorsHayley Hodsen (Corona del Mar) and Jordyn Poulter (Eaglecrest), are on the USA’s 12-player U23 team, coached by Karch Kiraly, competing in the U23 World Championships in Mexico. The USA team qualified for the semifinals, today versus the Dominican Republic, by outlasting Brazil in five sets on Wednesday to take second in its pool at 4-1 behind 5-0 China. Scambray started at outside hitter in the Brazil match.
Los Osos, nationally ranked in the pre-season, had its 35-match Baseline League winning streak snapped atRancho Cucamonga. The victorious Cougars are coached by Aaron Flores, one of the principals at Club West, where several Los Osos standouts play their club ball.
Have you noticed all the new content?
With the October 1 launch of our re-designed site, PrepVolleyball.com has added a lot of new content. CBound, written by Dan Kaplan, is back with all new recruiting articles. There is a section for coaching coaches thanks to the Art of Coaching Volleyball outfit, the brainchild of Russ Rose, John Dunning and Terry Liskevych. We also will publish two Instruction articles each week, plus one on health/fitness and another on nutrition, all written by experts in their respective fields.
We are currently working on other deals as well, including ones that will enhance your video opportunities, and intend on bringing online many of our past staples, like the Unsigned Senior List and College Needs Lists, and several new features, like our new message board and player, club and college profile pages, in the near future.
All of these subscriber benefits do not come free to PrepVolleyball.com. We do not want to raise the subscription rate and would instead prefer to have many more subscribers. That’s where you come in. Tell people about PrepVolleyball.com! If you are a coach or club director, tell them all! Recommend that they join today. Better yet, pay it forward by signing someone else up for the site as a gift (all you need is an email address; the donee can change username and password later!). The more subscribers we have, the more we can do to enhance PrepVolleyball.com and keep it reasonably priced for all!
There is one final way you can help: Comment on the articles! There is an area below the article itself where you can react to it. Your comments will not only appear below the story but also will find their way to Facebook. I’m not very smart about social media, I’ll admit, but I am told this will continue to get the word out about Prep.
Odds & Ends
Roanoke’s Cave Spring HS is hosting the 2nd Annual Tournament of Champions beginning today. The 17-team field is being proclaimed the strongest tournament field ever in the state of Virginia. The tournament format is unique, in that each team will play five assigned matches. The idea was to pit the strongest teams against one another, provided that they had not previously played one another this season. Among the headlining teams are nationally-ranked and undefeated Loudoun County, formerly ranked Flint Hill andKellam, Colonial Forge, which upended Kellam last week; and Hidden Valley, which defeated the hosts in four sets on Wednesday behind 14 kills, 19 assists and four aces from Hannah Podeschi…
New York’s Penfield High took second at the Garden State Challenge last Saturday. Senior Emily Richards, a Belmont recruit, had an outstanding weekend for the Patriots (32-4-1), whose next two matches are against nationally-ranked Webster Schroeder and Pittsford Sutherland…
Tough serving helped Plainfield Central knock Plainfield North out of the national rankings with a three-set Tuesday win. “We did an excellent job serving them out of system,” said Central’s first-year coach, Erik Vogt. The Wildcats are about break-even this year and Tuesday’s win was by far their biggest.
“We are so young you can never tell who is going to show up,” said Vogt. “If we can play like this the remainder of the season we could do well in sectionals/regionals.”
Bonneville improved to 25-4 by sweeping three-time defending Idaho 4A champion Century on Tuesday. The Bees, who are led by outsides Kylee Giles and Haylie Keck, start two freshmen and two sophomores…
Hempfield and Parkland squared off on Saturday in the final of the Hempfield Invitational. Parkland, the 2011 Class AAA champion (beating Hempfield), led 14-11 in Game 3 but could not finish. Hempfield, the 2012 state champion (beating Parkland), battled back to win, handing Parkland its third loss of the year, all to Hempfield in tournament play…
North Branch (MI) is 38-2-3 on the year. The Broncos will be tested this weekend at the eight-team Marian Tournament. They will be the only Class B team there in an event populated with six ranked Class A teams…
Carlmont continues to get better in NorCal under the watchful eye of coach Chris Crader. SophomoreAlexis Morrow had 10 emphatic blocks and setter Amelia Tupou spread the ball effectively in a win atBurlingame. The Scots (11-6) then defeated Woodside in five. Ella McDonough and Charlotte Jackman both had career-highs to combine for 43 kills.
Round Rock (TX) head coach Diane Watson was inducted into the University of Texas Athletic Hall of Honor last month. Watson was a two-time All-America and finished her career as UT’s career kills and digs leader. A 1987 graduate of the university, she has been head coach at Round Rock for the past 15 seasons…
Topeka Hayden Catholic (KS) is 23-6 in 2013 after splitting matches yesterday with St. Thomas Aquinas and Shawnee Heights. On the T-Birds’ bench, the second chair is reserved for the head coach, the third for the assistant. The first chair is always empty, said assistant coach Carrie Schmidt, because that’s where Jesus sits…
Staying in Kansas, Blue Valley West has recovered from a very slow start to 14-9, including a win at the Ottawa Invitational over the weekend, where it defeated McPherson, ranked No. 1 in Class 4A, in the finals. BVW is being led by senior OH Meme Fletcher and junior libero Taylor Lake…
The first state title of the year will be bestowed tomorrow in Oklahoma’s smallest class. Seven of the top 11 teams in Class 4A are in the eight-team bracket, led by No. 1 Elgin and No. 2 Mt. Saint Mary. Mt. Saint Mary is making its first state tournament appearance in the 40-year history of the school…
Crook County (OR), the seven-time reigning state champs, have five freshmen contributing mightily for the Cowgirls, who are 23-3 heading into the Clearwater Classic tomorrow. Setter Abby Smith leads the team in assists and libero Aspen Christiansen is second in digs…
St. Teresa’s (MO), nationally ranked in the preseason, is catching fire after impressive wins last week versus St. Joseph’s and Ozark. The Stars are 14-6 on the year and being led by seniors Anna Kropf, Emily Wemhoff and Miranda Schultz…
Bakersfield Liberty defeated Clovis West on the road last week. That’s quite a feat given the Patriots (14-7) had just two returning starters and that the Clovis West gym is a house of horrors for the visiting team, yielding just three wins against 52 defeats since 2008…
Demarest (NJ) is now ranked third in the state after handing Old Tappan its first loss of the season. Brooke Runge currently sits fourth in the state for assists…
It’s Breast Cancer Awareness month and a lot of schools are having benefit matches. Pontiac Notre Dame’s ribbon contains candid action shots. Pretty cool.
Junior OH Taylor Portland recorded career kill No. 1,000 for Charlotte Country Day (28-6) on Oct. 4. Portland has had more than 300 kills in each of her three seasons on varsity and is on pace to crush school record….??St. Francis Borgia, the top-ranked team in Missouri’s Class 3, won the Hermann Tournament last week for the 19th time by beating New Haven in the semifinals, 25-13, 25-11, and Hermann in the title contest, 25-17, 25-14. The team accomplished that without senior MB Erin Hillerman, who has been out since the first set of the New Haven match Sept. 23 with an ankle injury. She should be returning this week. In her absence, Borgia turned to two sophomores, Liz Frederick and Elizabeth Mattli, to fill the role.
Catholic Memorial (WI) , taking a year off from being a state power, went 1-4 at the Asics Challenge and was the only team to lose to all three bracket winners, Assumption, Marist and Nazareth. CMHS has five freshman on its roster this year.
Miami East (OH), the two-time defending Ohio Division III champs, has recovered from an 0-2 start to go 19-1 against in-state competition the rest of the way. Voters remain unimpressed, however, as the Vikings are only No. 13 in the latest state Division III poll. Miami East finished the regular season 19-4 and the senior class is the winingest in school history with 96 and counting. They have won all league matches, dropping just one scant set, since seventh grade!
Louisville Male (KY) picked up a huge win last Thursday, sweeping state-ranked Tates Creek. Southpaw RS Jaela Packer, a junior, was sensational. She’s the best lefty RS in the state, asserted coach Tim O’Connell.
Strange or Unusual Plays
We asked volleyball coaches to describe the strangest or most unusual volleyball plays they’ve witnessed or have been a part of. Here are the responses we received:
Chris Hoelscher, Minooka High (IL) — Two years ago, Skyler Day was a sophomore. In the championship game of a tournament, she took a swing on the outside. The ball was blocked, bounced back towards her, went off her head and landed on the opponent’s side in zone three for a ‘kill’? (I did list it as a forehead kill in my stats.) I don’t know that play resumed immediately because we were all laughing so hard. Strangest thing I have ever seen!
Carrie Schmidt, Topeka Hayden (KS) — When playing St James, our right back was digging on the line and took a shot off her face, which went into the net. One of our other players dug it out and sent it over the net. The whole gym went “OOOOOOHHHHH” when our player got hit in the face, but we made the best of it!
Bill Battle, St, Francis Borgia (MO) — Janie Arand’s match-saving pancake dig (and Emma Kriete’ssave near the crowd) at New Haven Sept. 23 for Borgia. The Lady Knights came back to win the match in three games.
Jason Bruns, Menomonee Falls (WI) — In 2006, Janelle Gabrielsen (former Gatorade State POY, and 4 year starter for the Wisconsin Badgers) went up on an attack and came down spitting something out of her mouth. I was too far away to see what was going but I noticed teammate (and fellow all stater) Lauren Hintze, immediately stomping on something on the floor. Turns out that Nellie had gone up to attack with her mouth open and a bee flew in and stung her inside the mouth, leading to the spit out. The bee was quickly killed by Lauren. Play resumed after a quick check of Nellie’s mouth and a laugh. Oh… and she got the kill!
James Park, West Holmes (OH) — We went to watch a girl from Cara Park’s club team, Ashley Richardson, play on Saturday. They are not good at all and the other team was just ok. Her team overpasses a ball, the other team’s middle went up and spiked it back at Ashley’s team BUT as Ashley jumped to try to block the girl attacking the overpass, Ashley actually spiked the other girl’s spike back at her. It was actually hilarious to see.
Nancy Dorsey, St. James (KS) – In a match versus Bishop Kelley, Brie Lewis dug a ball and was on the ground and actually kicked the 3rd attack over because she didn’t have time to get up. We ended up winning the point! It was a fun play!
My favorites: Five distinct memories. One came Saturday in Chicago when Mother McAuley middle Kelsey Clark hit the ball straight down to apparently sweep St. Francis and reach the finals of the Asics Challenge. But Spartan libero Sam Dubiel, who could not react fast enough to dig up the rocket with her arms, had the ball go off her foot and drop while the Macs were celebrating. St. Francis won that set to even the match and had several match points in Game 3 before losing.
Two other weird plays also involved foot digs. Kyle Gilbert, now the Stanford libero, kicked a third contact from near her bench playing a Mandatory at the ASC in Anaheim. The ball went high in the air, negotiated the lattice work near the ceiling and fell on the other side. Then there was Spiral’s Sarah Sponcil, one of the best setters in the country, kick setting a ball to a teammate during a match at the Las Vegas Classic.
I also remember Cassie Strickland literally running through the wall at Cashman Field Center to dig up a ball during Las Vegas. Cashman has a hole in the wall to prove it. Finally, former Utah schoolgirl star Arial Salvo jump served from back right, falling backwards as she did so, but managed to dig the overpassed ball left front with an all-out dive and right fist that landed on the other side for a point. It remains the greatest dig I’ve ever seen.
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