VBallBlue

I'm ignorant then...I've been concentrating on the 5/6th CSAA tourney starting this week. Since there are no district or regional tournaments for JV/Freshman, how exactly were these teams selected for the tournament? Invitation only, by records??

Call me ignorant if need be, but what JV State Tournament are you referring to? I'm completely unaware of any JV or Freshmen level state tournament in KY. JV teams in Louisville are ending their regular seasons this week with no tourney as usual.

Z Absolutely correct. D1 volleyball is a headcount sport as well. The 12 scholarships at a fully funded school cannot be split either. Schools with larger rosters will typically have freshman/sophomores walk on with the expectation of a scholarship in years 3 and 4. This is very common with players at the DS position. With some very specific limited exceptions, some academic money can be provided to freshman based on GPA and ACT scores. There are plenty of girls from KY on full rides.

I saw this and literally wanted to throw up. --A state tournament draw that decides the championship before the final!! --An entire side of the bracket filled with regions whose champions most likely couldn't even get out of their district if they were in a region on the other side. Be ready for an empty gym come championship Sunday. Save your money and don't buy the full weekend pass. But, I guess some will be happy to see a public school state "runner up".

Been spending most of my volleyball time at the grade school level this season, but saw this thread and got my attention. Mercy, SHA, and Assumption do employ official line judges for their matches against each other, and it was because of the heated rivalry. Specifically, 2 years ago at Assumption, some very blatantly bad line calls were made by an Assumption player/judge that did effect the outcome of the match. Were they not paying attention? No. Chatting with the crowd? No. Wanting to give it to the rival? Seemed like it. Afterwards, it was said that Mercy's Garvey said he would only play with officials from that point forward. Apparently Kordes agreed as that is what has happened. SHA also went along. Neither players nor parents should judge matches--too hard to be objective for most. This is something that has burned me for awhile from school to club, which is even worse. Granted, their are conscientious players and parents who do call a good game or at least try too. It will, in the end, come down to money. Do you want to spend the $$ for quality, or continue with mediocrity.

Hentz will be Miss Volleyball for 2015. Her only true competition is Hammons, and the award is a senior only honor. Hammons most likely wins next year unless some new star arises. The only senior I see possibly having a shot to keep Hentz from winning is Zweibel from SH. It will depend on their stats, and, most likely, who's carrying home the trophy at year end. The only year the award went to someone I felt it shouldn't have was 2012 to Assumption's Paulson. Good player, but I thought Maya McClendon was better all around. Paulson won state though.

After seeing NDA drop in the last poll, I sincerely hope the votes were cast prior to the Sacred Heart match.....NDA should be #1 . We've now had NDA vs SH, SH vs Mercy, and SH vs Assumption to make some comparisons. In each match so far, the team that limits errors has prevailed. Mercy had 43 scoring errors and Assumotion 46 versus SH. SH had 30 against NDA. Mercy and Assumption both looked out of sync against SH--Mercy trying to replace what they lost, and Assumption....well let's just say I wouldn't want to be a participant in their next practice. Mercy did handle NDA during their earlier scrimmage, but we all know scrimmages don't tell the whole story. Hentz was out, and does a coach reveal all of his tricks in the preseason? I suspect that if Mercy cannot limit their errors, it will be a bad evening for the Jags.

I thought Sacred Heart looked rough the other night, as did Mercy. There were a lot of errors on both sides, but in that tight of a game, Mercy could've won it without 43 errors. Haven't seen NDA yet but hope to this week at SH. Hammons has been missing in action with the U.S. Team, so maybe SH just wasn't used to playing with her. If so, they should be much better after a bit. Should be a good match at SH this week. They did do a weird reversal Sunday at the SH Mercy game, varsity first, then JV followed by the freshman game. After that first match, it had to have sucked (it would've for me) to have to stay through the last two games after having lost such an emotional game.

Not playing anywhere. Rumored she was asked not to come back to KIVA this spring. Talent can always be wasted when poor personal choices are involved. Really a shame--all the talent and potential in the world and wasted. Some say the scholly was given up. Others say it was pulled by UNC. Lots of girls would've loved to have had the opportunity.

One of the two. Need to see some game action before making a choice. Assumption basically the same team as last year. Stellar backrow and so-so frontline offense. Mercy lost a ton and will need to regroup. Sacred Heart and NDA were both good last year and both kept a solid core of their main players. I will have to stay riding the fence for a bit.

No real details as I wasn't there, but Mercy loses in straight sets to Providence 25-15 25-23 26-24. Looks like they could score tonight, which should be the biggest issue this season, but they couldn't keep Providence from doing the same. Not to take anything away from Providence, which is a solid team, but If the Jags can't beat Providence, the outlook isn't good when it comes to Assumption, NDA & Sacred Heart. I'm sticking with Sacred Heart and NDA to take it all this year.

In volleyball, in Louisville, yes I'd say it's a cultural thing. It's that you have an organized program that introduced the kids to the sport at an early age. They find they like it and want to play even more. Many in CSAA, coaches and other players, are involved in club and they will tell the others to get involved in club. Training and game action in club will make them better players and in Louisville, the kids start young. School ball at the early ages is more of an introduction. They get some basics, but that taste is what gets them involved with club ball. Club is where the intensive training takes place, and when you've got kids playing club ball from age 6 (yes I had one daughter start at 6) they have an advantage. When you have areas where there are no grade school programs, most of the girls are starting behind the right ball. Do some overcome that? Yes they do, but by and large they don't.

I'm not sure if he was trying to be harsh, but you're correct. There are good players who happen to be on teams that are not that competitive in club. Problem is that most of the better high school players ARE club players. If there aren't that many good club players, then naturally you're going to have fewer good high school players. You're going to have the athletic studdettes that can play but don't pay club, but those are few in number. From my perspective this past club season, I would have to agree that LUV was not that competitive this year from 14's down through 10's. The 10's and 11's seem to be run as a developmental program with shorter seasons than other KY clubs. There were some good players but overall the teams weren't strong. This is the case at several clubs. MAVA and Union were both not strong at many age levels. I think some of this is due to dilution in this case. Louisville seemed to have enough players for two big clubs with some smaller clubs thrown in the mix. The rise of Union has spread the wealth too thin in some cases and some clubs such as PNK have cherrypicked strong players at certain levels. KIVA continues to draw strong players. It will be interesting to see how things shake out going forward in Louisville. I personally don't think there are enough very good players for three large clubs to field competitive teams at every age. In Lexington, I think the problem still seems to be not enough athletic girls playing the sport starting at a young age. The CSAA program in Louisville plays a big part in developing the interest in younger players that than then drives the clubs. Not many areas of the state have that advantage.

Why would that quickly fall through? Thought that was done deal at the time he and St. Catharine split.

Sacred Heart, NDA, Assumption, Mercy

Matt Thomerson has been named to replace Todd Garvey as Mercy Academy’s head volleyball coach, athletic director Mark Evans announced Thursday. Thomerson was the former coach at Louisville Holy Cross. 91-51.......that was his record there. I kind of feel "meh" about this. I have to say I'm not enthused with this hire. He's ok, but he's not the best of those applying. He's definately not the "home run" hire Evans said he needed to make--more like a bunt. I'll just leave it at this....I bet Ron Kordes likes this hire.

Some interviews were done last week, but no word on who the candidates interviewed were. From what I have heard, damn near everyone in Louisville applied for the position.

The emphasis on basketball might be changing in the future. I remember it being said somewhere in the state championship brackets that there are now more girls participating in volleyball than basketball. Hard to imagine but that's what was said.

Getting back to the original thread, has anyone heard any names rumored to be "contenders" for this position? Interviews were supposed to start this week from last gossip I heard.

If I could pick 2 it would be NDA and SH. With only one I go with NDA--they are much like Mercy last year--came close but didn't finish and are hungry.

I think people are arguing over what exactly is a championship "contender". I think it's entirely possible for a team to make it all the way to the championship without truly being a real "contender". Greenwood made it to the final a couple of years ago, but did anyone truly believe they were going to beat Assumption? Was Greenwood a "contender" or just someone lucky enough to make it to the title game. I think that Mercy could, if the brackets are kind, make to the championship game, but I'd not pick them to beat Assumption, Sacred Heart, or NDA. NDA will be strong as will SH. Assumption might still be weak in the front line but they have a back row defense that most colleges would love. Mercy has a couple of good back row players, but they are losing almost all of their offensive production in Jewell, Rachel, and Hamrick. Having seen their JV and freshman teams play several times (and not belittling the players on them), my opinion is that they do not have the replacements for what they've lost. I think they can win their region, make state, but will not win it. Next years champion is most likely SH or NDA.

I'm surprised most that he left to take a volunteer assistant position. There's been previous offers of an actual assistant spot with other programs. I've heard Mercy has not had any official interviews yet--supposed to be in coming weeks. Right now they're just collecting applications. No sense to be in any hurry to fill the spot. You want to make the right choice the first time. In any case, next season is going to be a tough one trying to replace this years seniors. Rock mom, I too know someone who would be a home run hire, a great teacher of the game, and great bench coach as well, and I hope I'm right.

He has accepted a position with a D1 volleyball program. The school is known, but for some reason not being publicized. Not UofL. It's a good opportunity and he's going out on top--good luck to Todd. This should be an interesting hire not only for its effects on high school ball but on the club scene as well. It's well known that the players will usually follow a top tier high school's coach. The rise of Union in recent years was the result of the Garvey brothers involvement. Whatever club finds itself associated wit the new Mercy coach should see a benefit.

Saw that about Lampe. Feel sorry for him but he knew the rules, he violated them (intentionally or not) and gets to pay the price. From what I heard, somebody lit off a firecracker in the locker room and the dip was discovered during a search. As a St X graduate I wish they'd spend as much time searching for actual illegal drugs as they did for firecrackers. They're a little bit more of a problem than dip.

Question regarding this committment. Says she verbally committed to UT but I've seen where she has also committed to EKU. Neither team has announced that she has signed for the coming year at all. Have seen a bunch of transfers at UT recently and it looks like a there's a lot of turmoil there. Is she actually going to UT or somewhere else?