Division II East District 2-A proved to be competitive in volleyball in its first year of existence in the TSSAA. Boyd-Buchanan coach Nancy Culver, pictured, guided her Lady Buccaneers to the regular-season title, and they are the No. 1 seed in the postseason tournament.The Chattanooga area's new TSSAA volleyball district just went through one crazy regular season.
Now it's time to see if that carries over to the postseason.
Because of the jump of so many of its schools between last school year and this one to Division II, the state organization had to reshuffle its leagues. In volleyball, DII was expanded to the point that teams are now split into Classes A and AA.
The Class A East Region was formed, and from that came divisions into Districts 1 and 2, with the latter made up of Chattanooga-area teams.
Most district tournaments involving area teams begin Monday, and each round of the DII East District 2-A tournament will be hosted by the higher-seeded team. The District 7-AA tournament at Signal Mountain begins Tuesday and has its final set for 6 p.m. Thursday, along with DII East District 2-A. Districts 5-AAA, 6-AA and 5-A have finals scheduled at 6 p.m. Tuesday, while District 6-AAA has its championship at Warren County scheduled for 7 EDT that night.
Division I district finalists advance to next week's region tournaments. The fortunate thing for these new DII-A districts is that four teams move on to region play.
The six teams in DII East District 2-A played each other twice for a total of 10 league matches. Not only did no team make it through unscathed, regular-season champion Boyd-Buchanan (28-9) had two district losses.
POSTSEASON PLAY
Area TSSAA volleyball district tournaments(All matches Monday unless noted; all times EDT)› 6-AAA at Warren County: 5—Rhea County vs. White County; 6—Warren County vs. Soddy-Daisy; 7—Rhea/White winner vs. Cookeville.› 5-AAA at Bradley Central: 4:30—McMinn County vs. Bradley Central; 6—Ooltewah vs. Walker Valley; 7:30—McMinn/Bradley winner vs. Cleveland.› 7-AA at Signal Mountain (Tuesday): 4:30—Grundy County vs. Red Bank; 6—Sequatchie County vs. Signal Mountain› 6-AA at Hixson: 4:30—Howard vs. East Ridge; 6—Central vs. Hixson; 7:30—Howard/East Ridge winner vs. East Hamilton› 5-A at Marion County: 4:30—Richard Hardy vs. Marion County; 6—Arts & Sciences vs. Lookout Valley; 7:30—South Pittsburg vs. Whitwell› Division II East District 2-A at higher-seeded teams: 6—Silverdale Baptist Academy at Grace Academy, St. Andrew’s-Sewanee at Notre Dame; Tuesday: 6—Silverdale/Grace winner at Boyd-Buchanan, SAS/Notre Dame winner at Chattanooga Christian.
Boyd-Buchanan began the season 10-0, including winning 2-0 in a Gold division semifinal Aug. 19 over district opponent Notre Dame in the Hixson Invitational. But three days later, when the teams met in a district match at Notre Dame, the Lady Fighting Irish won 3-1.
The district tournament opens with fifth-seeded Silverdale Baptist Academy playing at fourth-seeded Grace Academy, with the winner playing at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Boyd-Buchanan. One of Grace's district wins was at Boyd-Buchanan. The Lady Buccaneers swept Silverdale, but one match was 3-2.
"There's parity in this conference," Boyd-Buchanan coach Nancy Culver said. "Anybody can win on a given day. That's the great thing about this district."
On Sept. 14, Grace hosted Chattanooga Christian School (27-15, 7-3), which ended up being the No. 2-seeded team, and won 3-1 to gain a season series split. And although Silverdale lost twice to the Lady Chargers, it took a set against them both times.
"It's been very unpredictable," CCS coach Sarah Davis said. "With five out of the six teams, it's a toss-up. We're all pretty equal in skill level, and in our play in general. It should get interesting."
Third-seeded Notre Dame (26-15, 7-3) could potentially end up playing at CCS in Tuesday's second round. The Lady Chargers defeated the Lady Irish all three times they met this season, including 2-0 in a match in the Choo Choo Classic tournament Sept. 2 at Red Bank. But both district matches went five sets.
"They're a very good blocking team," first-year Notre Dame coach Dan Clotfelter said. "The teams that have given us the most trouble are teams with good middle blockers. We think we're a better matchup with Boyd-Buchanan. Boyd-Buchanan maybe matches up better against Chattanooga Christian. It's almost like a triangle. And Silverdale and Grace can still beat anybody else in the group."
Said Davis of the Lady Irish: "Both times we played them in district they went five, and all have been really tight sets. I know them pretty well now. Our girls have to know if we play them again it's still going to be a hard game. Playing consistent on our side of the net is very important."
Clotfelter said when his team earned the rebound victory against Boyd-Buchanan early in the season, the Lady Irish were starting to get adjusted to a new way of doing things. And it helped having a big home crowd.
Although four teams from districts 1 and 2 will move on to the East Region tournament, the better a team finishes in its district tournament determines whether it plays at home or on the road in Saturday's first round.
"Hopefully we can win and be at home," Culver said. "That's huge for us. We'll have to perform at a consistently high level and we have to make plays when necessary. We tend to have a positive mindset when we serve aggressively. Serving, passing and blocking are big keys for us.
"It's who's going to show up that day, and who's going to execute the game plan?"
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.