Tawa’s HS Dots: Macs are Mighty; Francis is Fearless
Mother McAuley mighty at Asics Challenge
This is “Dots,” VolleyballMag.com’s weekly look at 10 things in high school volleyball, past or present, that interest me and hopefully will interest you. Look for Dots every week until the last high school state championship in November:
• On Thursday, as they do before the traditional two-day Asics Challenge in Chicago, Mother McAuley and Marist each hosted a Kentucky powerhouse in a “friendly” match. Assumption won an overtime Game 1, 28-26, on its way to a three set win over the Mighty Macs. Marist rallied from a set down to get the best of defending champion Notre Dame Academy in three sets.
Two days later, perhaps fueled by those Thursday losses, Mother McAuley (21-4) and Notre Dame (24-3) both made the final at the 24-team Asics Challenge, one of the very best events in the Midwest year in and year out, with teams from Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky, Iowa, New York and Nebraska. McAuley won, 25-20, 25-18, to repeat as champion. Senior Ellie White had 14 kills and three aces and libero Sam Falk was credited with 29 digs in the sweep. Middles Ellery Rees and Kiera Ohse, OH Sydney Buchanan and RS Mary Claire Deacy also stepped up big on the weekend.
“I felt like every match we got better as a team,” said Mother McAuley coach Jen DeJarld. “We’ve been struggling to sustain a high level from start to finish and that was one of our goals for the weekend.”
DeJarld said that it wasn’t the loss to Assumption that motivated her team, but a loss the Thursday prior to Marist. The Mighty Macs got their revenge in the quarterfinals before taking out Omaha Skutt Catholic in the semifinals.
“We definitely were happy for the opportunity to redeem ourselves,” DeJarld added.
Notre Dame reached the championship final by knocking off Michigan’s North Branch in a quarterfinal and edged Assumption, 29-27 in the third, in the semifinals, squaring the season series with the Rockets at a win apiece. The two teams are slated to play one more time in the regular season, on Oct. 12, before the District playoffs commence.
Saint Francis wins ToC in Phoenix
• Saint Francis of Mountain View, California, placed 13th out of 64 teams at the Durango Fall Classic two Saturdays ago. The Lancers fell victim to an Assumption rally during the Championship Qualifying Round, then lost to Xavier College Prep of Phoenix in the first round of the Silver Bracket before winning out.
One of the wins came against West Catholic Athletic League rival Archbishop Mitty, a team Saint Francis lost to the first time they played. Saint Francis (23-3) doubled up on the Monarchs five days later by registering a four-set league win at home. That gave me a feeling that the Lancers might do something special at the Nike Tournament of Champions-Southwest in Phoenix. Indeed, in the Friday Notebook I write for the California Interscholastic Federation, I said this:
Saint Francis also could figure after downing league rival Archbishop Mitty for the second time in five days on Wednesday.
Seven wins later, including the last four that all went to a third and deciding set, the Lancers are the 2023 National Division champions. Lake Merchen’s team downed defending champion Cornerstone Christian of San Antonio, a team that finished seven spots ahead of it at Durango, in the championship match.
“Beating Cornerstone Christian was largely in part to our reception and defensive efforts,” Merchen explained. “ [Libero] Whitney Wallace was incredible and as a whole we were passing the ball at a super high level all the way throughout the match, which let our setter (Hannah Maguire) run a really great offense and stay ahead of the big block and great defense of CC. We’ve put a ton of work in defensively over the past week and it definitely showed in that match as well. CC is a crazy physical team that I think is used to just being bigger/better than the teams they go up against, but their offense is a little slower than what we’re used to seeing, so we were able to take advantage of that and consistently get great touches on the block and our defenders were working their butts off to give us second chance and transition opportunities. Overall (and I’m sure this is the most cliche response you can get but for us it couldn’t be more accurate) this tournament win was an entire team effort. Each and every player we had stepped up when their number was called and helped to take pressure off of their teammates.”
“I think our mindset going into Durango was to get the opportunity to match up against the top teams in the country, be challenged, and see where we stood compared to them,” Merchen said. “The loss against Assumption showed us that we were just as good, if not better, than a lot of those teams, but we needed to be more fearless in tight moments and especially at the end of matches. Our motto for the week and for this tournament was simply to be fearless when the moment was big. Big wins require big things, big swings, and big plays…and we stayed true to that throughout the tournament.”
• Merchen said he wasn’t sure his team would make the final after losing Game 1 of the semifinal versus Liberty of Peoria, 25-11.
“They were a great team and it looked like the crazy amount of competitive matches we’d played in the past three weeks had caught up to us and we’d hit a wall,” Merchen explained.
The team, which was error-prone in that first set, then went down 10-3 to start the second.
“The comeback charge was led by Erin Curtis, especially with her offense coming out of the backrow; and Ella Fulton (Soph. MB) who had four blocks and a handful of kills…Definitely a moment where the fearless mindset came to play and got us out of a tough spot.”
• Curtis and fellow outside Taylor Williams, Wallace and Maguire made the All-Tournament Team for Saint Francis, with Merchen anointing Maguire as the MVP. That’s huge praise given that replacing stud setter Havanna Hoeft from last year’s 34-1 team was the biggest question mark for the team heading into the season.
Fulton and middle Sacha Touma also excelled, teaming for 64 kills and 24 blocks at the net.
“They were both able to carry the offensive load in matches where our pins looked like they had hit the wall and there’s no way we could have made the run we did without the two of them,” Merchen said.
• Instead of the traditional October “Dig Pink,” Mahtomedi volleyball, in Minnesota, is doing an “Orange Out” on Wednesday versus North St. Paul HS because senior defender Morgan Marx is battling leukemia. Plans for the evening include raffle tickets to win one of several themed baskets, including a Volleyball Basket that includes tickets to a University of Minnesota Golden Gopher match. The team also plans a gift of a ponytail to Children with Hair Loss, courtesy of Marx. Between the first and second sets, she will snip the hair of JV coach Kelly Olson Misiura!
• Last Tuesday in Missouri, two of the best teams in the Show Me State, Liberty and Liberty North, clashed in their annual Dig for a Cure game. It was high school volleyball at its finest, with Liberty North prevailing in the fifth set by a 16-14 score.
Carlie Cisneros, one of the top senior attackers in the country, had 28 kills and 12 digs in the win. Abigail Mullen, a top five national junior hitter, had 29 kills and 23 digs in the loss.
Funds were raised for several area coaches in the throes of their own cancer battles, including Saree Morley, Ken Peek and Ryun Middleton. Coach Rob James was honored posthumously.
Reagan Harp is averaging six kills per set for the Fayetteville Bulldogs
• Senior Regan Harp is the lone returning starter for Fayetteville, the 2022 Arkansas 6A champions. Harp moved from the middle this year to become a six-rotation outside hitter and is averaging six kills per set this fall. She recorded her career 1000th kill in last weekend’s tournament at Saint Thomas Aquinas in Kansas. Harp is committed to the University of Central Arkansas.
• Last Tuesday, Highland, of Marengo, Ohio, lost at home to Shelby, 3-1. The loss snapped an 11-year, 76-match, 216-set home conference streak dating to 2012.
Two days later, the Fighting Scots (15-3) swept Galion to start a new streak and avenge a road loss from four weeks ago. Highland and Galion are the only two schools in the eight-team conference to win the conference over the past decade.
• Some milestones…
Oconee County (GA) senior OH Brinley Bartlett eclipsed 1,000 career kills.
Brinley Bartlett: Over 1,000 kills
Ridgeview (FL) senior S Mariah Bostic-Jones topped 500 assists for the season and 1,500 for her career.
Mariah Bostic-Jones: 1,500 career assists
Portsmouth Christian Academy (NH) senior Kailey Holt now has 150 career aces and is closing in on the school’s single-season and career ace record.
Ace machine Kailey Holt
Highland (OH) junior RS Kameron Stover went over 1,000 career kills.
Sunny Hills (CA) OH Kayla Taylor, a recent Dennison recruit, hit 1,000 career kills on Sept. 28.
Kayla Taylor: 1,000 terminations
At Legion Collegiate Academy (SC), senior setter Mia Scott surpassed 500 assists in a season and junior OH Addison Burke went over the 800 career kill mark.
St. Michael’s Academy (TX) hitter Mora Mooney now has 1,300 career kills.
Mora Mooney: 1,300 career kills
• As the calendar turns to October, it is time to start thinking about the volleyball playoffs. Oklahoma will be the first state to crown state champions, when the smaller classifications hold their state championships Oct. 12-14.
Here now is a state-by-state rundown of the championship dates for 2023:
Alabama – Oct. 31-Nov. 2
Alaska – Nov. 9-11
Arizona – Nov. 10-11
Arkansas – Oct. 23-26
California – Nov. 17-18
Colorado – Nov. 9-11
Connecticut – Nov. 17-18
Delaware – Nov. 13
District of Columbia – Nov. 11?
Florida – Nov. 6-11
Georgia – Nov. 3-4
Hawaii – Oct. 30- Nov. 5
Idaho – Oct. 27-28
Illinois – Nov. 10-11
Indiana – Nov. 4
Iowa – Oct. 30-Nov. 2
Kansas – Oct. 27-28
Kentucky – Nov. 3-5
Louisiana – Nov. 9-11
Maine – Oct. 25
Maryland – Nov. 18
Massachusetts – Nov. 17-18
Michigan – Nov. 18
Minnesota – Nov. 8-11
Mississippi – Oct. 19
Missouri – Nov. 2-4
Montana – Nov. 9-11
Nebraska – Nov. 1-4
Nevada – Nov. 9-11
New Jersey – Nov. 12
New Mexico – Nov. 16-18
New York – Nov. 18-19
North Carolina – Nov. 4
North Dakota – Nov. 16-18
New Hampshire – Nov. 4
Ohio – Nov. 9-11
Oklahoma – Oct. 12-14 and Oct. 19-21
Oregon – Nov. 3-4
Pennsylvania – Nov. 18
Rhode Island – Nov. 11
South Carolina – Nov. 3-4
South Dakota – Nov. 16-18
Tennessee – Oct. 17
Texas – Nov. 15-18
Utah – Oct. 28-29 and Nov. 3-5
Virginia – Nov. 16-18
Vermont – Nov. 4
Washington – Nov. 8-11 and Nov. 17-18
West Virginia – Nov. 8-9
Wisconsin – Nov. 2-4
Wyoming – Nov. 2-4
Until next time …
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