State tourney has 16 returning teams

All eyes turn to Chattanooga as 24 teams will compete in the girls' soccer state tournament, which runs today through Saturday.

The Class A/AA and AAA divisions, which have eight-team fields, will play today, Thursday and Saturday; the four-school Division II tournaments will play Thursday and Friday. The Class A/AA quarterfinal and semifinal matches will be held at Chattanooga Christian, the Division II semifinal matches at Baylor and the first two rounds of Class AAA at GPS.

All finals will be at GPS: Division II at 4:30 and 7 p.m. Friday and Division I on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday.

Three defending state champions are returning to the Scenic City: Siegel in AAA, Christian Academy of Knoxville in A/AA and Father Ryan in Division II-AA. Sixteen teams are making return trips to the state tournament, including all eight schools from last year's AAA field.

"I'm looking forward to it," said Notre Dame coach Jim Schermerhorn, whose third-ranked Lady Irish (14-2-3) play Dyersburg at 2 p.m. today.

Fourth-ranked Chattanooga Christian (14-5-3) drew a tough opening-round match against second-ranked Christ Presbyterian Academy (18-2).

"It doesn't matter much," CCS coach Cal Sneller said after Saturday's 3-0 win over Arts & Sciences. "We're going to have to play three good games, two to get the finals, and it's not going to be easy anywhere."

Baylor hopes this year's run toward a Division II-AA title turns out better than last. The Lady Red Raiders (16-0-1) entered last year's tournament with a similar record -- 17-0-1 -- but fell 2-0 to Father Ryan in the semifinals. The Lady Red Raiders lost 11 seniors and eight starters off that team, but this year's team has been paced by a stellar sophomore class, led by leading scorers McKenzie Thomas, Peyton Thomas and Chloe Brackett.