Fall Sports/Girls Volleyball 2000   

The Hornets' varsity team won three of its five games this weekend in Chicago at the Nike Challenge Preview, earning second place in the bronze division.

This is the fourth consecutive year the Greenhill girls' volleyball team traveled to Chicago to compete in the prestigious Nike Challenge Preview, hosted by the 1997 National Volleyball Champions Mother McAuley High School.

The Hornets returned only five players to the tournament from last year's 25-18 squad. Several underclassmen were included in this year's Greenhill team that was 8 - 9 going into the tournament. Of the 17 matches Greenhill has played, 13 have been against area 4A & 5A schools, including the Northwest Invitational and the Arlington Classic.

"I think this is one of the more athletic teams that I've coached at Greenhill," said McGuire, who is 223-60 (66-4 MISC) in seven seasons and has gone undefeated in North Zone play the last six years as head coach for Greenhill. "We’ve had some pretty strong teams in the past. To be able to recognize this talent and for it to be so young makes working with this team a joy."

In the first pool at the Nike Challenge Preview, Greenhill defeated DuPont Manual, Ky. 15-13, 15-8. In the second match last year’s tournament runner-up, Stagg, Ill., defeated Greenhill 15-2, 15-7. In the final match DuPont beat Stagg, creating a three-way tie to determine who would be awarded gold, silver and bronze. Greenhill lost on points and dropped to the bronze division, leaving 13th place as the highest they could finish. This was huge set back for the team that flew into Chicago on Thursday night and didn't get into the hotel until 3:00 am on Friday.

Regardless, Greenhill played well through the bronze division and defeated Byron, Ind., 15-2, and 15-13.  They finished off local favorite Oak Lawn High School in the first game 17-15, after being down 14-11.  The second game was also a battle in which the Hornets won 17-15 to move into the championship game for bronze. In both games, Greenhill made important strides, being able to stay in the match when down in the score and put a team away when they had a lead.  This is an area that the team has focused on in practice, by using scrimmage games where they are forced to react to different game scenarios.

In the final match of the tournament Greenhill faced a large Bradley, Ill. team and came up short in the match after fighting back in game two. The Hornets started off intimidated by the big block that Bradley put up, but covered well and played better defense to force a third game. The final match score was posted 15-8, 13-15, 15-3.

Greenhill returns to conference play on Wednesday Sept. 20, where they take its 3-0 record up against Fort Worth Country Day at 5:00 in the Phillips Family Gymnasium on the Greenhill campus.

Tournament summary:

Leading Attackers:
Mercedes Posey-55, Autumn Erickson- 31, Kristin Goss-4

Leading digs:
Mercedes Posey-35, Autumn Erickson-28, Kim Briant-27

Blocks:
Liz Barnwell-8, Kristin Goss & Mercedes Posey-7

Service aces:
Mercedes Posey-7, Leslie Hunt-4

Assists:
Schanbaum 108

FRIDAY:
Greenhill defeated Dupont, KY 15-13, 15-8
Greenhill lost to Stagg, IL 15-2, 15-7

SATURDAY:
Greenhill defeated Byron, IL 15-2, 15-13
Greenhill defeated Oak Lawn, IL 17-15, 17-15
Greenhill lost to Bradley, IN 15-8, 13-15, 15-3

Tournament Record: 3-2
Tournament finish: Bronze division runner-up
Overall Record: 11-11

Greenhill Mid-Season Summary