Ooltewah coach Elaine Peigen, lower left, talks to her squad Thursday during a 5-AAA volleyball match at Soddy-Daisy.District 5-AAA volleyball teams went through a topsy-turvy first half of the regular season, followed by a flippity-floppity second half. Now that the district tournament is here, it’s time they get down to the nitty-gritty.
Not many districts ended up with regular-season tri-champions. Not many districts have No. 1-seeded teams in their tournaments with three league losses. This district has both.
Tournament action gets under way Monday, the beginning of state playoffs for TSSAA teams. District finalists move on to region to play. Postseason also begins this week for GHSA teams.
Graduation took a toll throughout District 5-AAA, and coming in there was no clear-cut favorite. Ooltewah, Bradley Central and Soddy-Daisy each finished the district regular season 9-3.
The teams went 2-2 against each other, each winning a total of eight sets. With the next tiebreaking criteria being losses in those matches, third-seeded Soddy-Daisy wound up with nine, second-seeded Bradley Central ended up with eight and top-seeded Ooltewah had seven.