Volleyball tourney pairings announced

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

The 2023 volleyball regular season will soon be in the rear view mirror and the four Adams County squads now know where their postseason treks will begin. The OHSAA Southeast District released its sectional tournament brackets on Sunday and though many teams have regular season quests still to complete, one eye is peeking towards the future.

The Southeast District Division III volleyball has been described as “loaded”, which seems to be true when the 13-4 North Adams Lady Devils earned just a #10 seed. Coach Katie Ragan and her team will begin postseason play on Thursday, October 19 when they will host fellow member of the Southern Hills Athletic Conference and #15 seeded Fairfield (13-6) in a 7 p.m. sectional final. Those two teams have developed a rivalry in the past couple of years and whoever survives that sectional title battle will move on to the district semi-finals on October 25 for a 6 p.m. match up with most likely #3 seeded Nelsonville-York (17-2). That district semi will be played at Waverly High School.

“I’m satisfied with the tournament draw,” said Coach Ragan. “I always like playing the sectional at home. I am concerned about playing Fairfield because I think they are a better team than how they played in our league game and they will be motivated to show that. If we are fortunate enough to win, we would most likely face Nelsonville-York. We played them in the district semifinals last year and won. Three years ago, we played them in the District semifinals and lost. That means we could play Nelsonville York in the District semifinals three out of four years. Hopefully that match up is meant to be.”

The #14 seed on the Division III volleyball bracket will be Coach Annie Gustin and the Peebles Lady Indians, who stand at 12-7 at press time. The Lady Indians will face a tough road test on October 19 when they travel to face #11 seeded Chesapeake (13-5) in a 7 p.m. sectional final. If they can upset Chesapeake, if it can be considered an upset, the Lady Indians would move on to the district semifinals and a likely match up with #2 seed Wheelersburg (16-2) at Waverly High School on October 24 with a 6 p.m. start.

“It is going to be a challenge, a one and a half hour drive to play a higher seed,” said Coach Gustin. “We lost some key league games that we should have won and that hurt us in the draw.”

Coach Kiersten Rowe and her West Union Lady Dragons (6-11) have had an up and down regular season and will see their first postseason action as the #23 seed on October 17 and they will be on their home court, hosting #26 seeded Crooksville in a sectional semifinal with a 7 p.m. start. A win there for the Lady Dragons would propel them into a Division III sectional championship game two nights later at #2 seeded Wheelersburg.

“I think overall it’s not a bad seed considering our season,” said Coach Rowe. “If we could have pulled out some more wins in the regular season like we should have, we would have been seeded higher.”

Wins were scarce in the regular season for Coach Myriah Cracraft and the Manchester Lady Greyhounds, but the young Lady Hounds have improved lately and will get the opportunity to host a Division IV sectional quarterfinal contest on Saturday, October 14, as the #16 seed At 2 p.m. on Saturday, Manchester will entertain #17 seeded Sciotoville East (1-12) with a trip to the sectional semis on the line. A win earns the Lady Hounds the dubious task of traveling to face #1 seeded Racine Southern (16-1) on October 16 at 7 p.m.

You can follow all the tournament volleyball action only in the sports pages of The People’s Defender and all of the volleyball tournament brackets can be found at https://www.ohsaa.org/Southeast-Sports-Tournaments/Volleyball.