LOCAL GHSA AREA TOURNAMENTSToday's schedules6-AA at Gordon Lee: 5--Armuchee vs. Gordon Lee; 6--Model vs. Chattooga; 7--championship.6-AAA at Adairsville: 5--Murray County vs. Lakeview-F.O.; Calhoun vs. Ringgold; 6--Coahulla Creek vs. Adairsville; North Murray vs. Sonoraville; 7--Murray County-Lakeview F.O. loser vs. Calhoun-Ringgold loser; Coahulla Creek-Adairsville loser vs. North Murray-Sonoraville loser.7-AAAA: 5:30--Pickens at Northwest Whitfield; LaFayette at Ridgeland; Gilmer at Heritage; Southeast Whitfield at Cartersville.
It's time for postseason volleyball in the GHSA, and Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe's team still doesn't have a true identity. But so much for that being important, considering it has a 30-9-1 record.
The Lady Warriors are also the Area 6-AAA regular-season champions. This weekend they will try to add the league's tournament title to their list of achievements.
A variety of area tournaments involving local teams get under way today. The Area 6-AAA tournament at Adairsville begins this afternoon with top-seeded LFO playing Murray County in one of two matches scheduled at 5.
After today's opening round , the double-elimination tournament will resume with winners-bracket semifinals Saturday morning at 10. All matches are best-of-three until the championship match, which will be best-of-five and is scheduled for 2 p.m. The top four teams move on to the state tournament.
The main thing LFO coach Diane Norwood has tinkered with off and on is trying setter Nayelli Gomez at libero because of her strong defensive skills. While some may think it's a mistake to try and reform something that was already working, Norwood sees it as a chance at making a good team better.
"Nayelli is really good on the back row," Norwood said. "I thought keeping her on the back row the whole time might be to our advantage."
The Lady Warriors have another setter in sophomore Sydni Eaves, who is a team captain along with senior Elizabeth Oliver.
"I've always been a middle hitter but played all the way around," Oliver said. "Just this season we've moved our other setter to the back row to be a libero. Everybody on the team is pretty flexible, so it wasn't too bad."
With Erin Lowery its only senior last season, LFO finished third in the area tournament. Then it drew and lost to Area 5 powerhouse and eventual state runner-up Blessed Trinity in the first round.
But with the return of seven seniors, high hopes abound for a return trip this year and a better finish.
"I think we've got a chance to keep going after the first round," Norwood said.
Other impactful seniors for the Lady Warriors include hitters Haley Grubb and Jessica Serecky and defensive specialist Brandii Simpson. A new addition this season has been junior hitter Ashley Adamson, who finished third in the state in the pole vault last spring.
"I think hitting is definitely our strength," said Oliver, who noted passing well and getting serves in will be vital for the Lady Warriors if they want to progress. "We have a lot of power hitters. We've never had like a really strong front row."
Hitter Abbi Mabry and back-row player Gabby Pace are contributors and the other seniors. Hitter Rachel Harwood, setter and back-row player Leah Oliver and back-row player Kailey Rawlston are sophomores who contribute.
But it's Gomez who is the hard-to-define influence for the Lady Warriors' opponents. She'll be on the court, but where? And in what color jersey?
"I knew we had a good team," Gomez said of her assessment before the season started, "but we've done way more than I expected. We've tried out a new rotation just to see if it would make us better. We could keep doing what we're doing or do better than what we were doing."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.