Fall Sports/Girls Volleyball 2000   

For 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.

Led by returning setter Lauren Schanbuam and outside hitter Mercedes Posey, the team looked to the Nike Challenge Preview as a test of its mental strength as well as their physical ability. Schanbaum is currently 7th in the area for setters with 353 assists in 17 matches while Posey has 104 kills in 11 matches. However, leading the Hornets in kills is sophomore Autumn Erickson with 110.

"Autumn has tremendous potential as a volleyball player,” Head Coach Michelle McGuire noted. “When Autumn realizes how good she can be, she will be a very difficult player to stop.  She is young and will mature into that player for us." 

Freshman Elizabeth Barnwell is the team's leading blocker with 41 on the season, which currently ranks her in the area’s top ten. Other Hornets leading the team in defense are sophomores Kim Briant, Leslie Hunt and Kristin Goss. Mara Weinstein is the team's lone senior, with athleticism and the ability to play any position, which makes her crucial to rounding out this Hornet squad.

"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."

Two of Greenhill's former volleyball team captains are now captains of their own collegiate teams, both at the NCAA Division I level. Ashley Harris ('98) is currently a junior and captain at Duke, while sophomore Stacey Carter ('99) is a University of Pennsylvania captain. 

Mercedes Posey is well on her way as she has been inundated with letters since the Sept. 1 mailing date. Top NCAA Division I programs in the country that are interested in Posey include Florida, Texas A&M, Duke, Pacific and Auburn, which is just the beginning of the list. 

"She definitely has the ability to play Division I, and coaches recognized that very early on with Mercedes,” McGuire said. “She is a special athlete who loves to compete."

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

Tournament Record: 3-2

Tournament finish: Bronze division runner-up