Tawa’s Dots: Read about GEICO Invitational in 15 minutes or less; state championship calendar and streaks

This is “Dots,” VolleyballMag.com’s weekly look at 10 things in high school volleyball, past or present, that interest me and hopefully will interest you. Look for Dots every Tuesday until the last high school state championship in November.

Tawa’s High School Volleyball Dots

This is “Dots,” VolleyballMag.com’s weekly look at 10 things in high school volleyball, past or present, that interest me and hopefully will interest you. Look for Dots every Tuesday until the last high school state championship in November.

• On Oct. 7 and 8, Paragon Marketing Group put on the Second Annual GEICO Girls Volleyball Invitational.

Last year’s inaugural four-team event, which eventual national champion Marymount of Los Angeles won over Hamilton of Arizona, was held in Chandler, Arizona.

This year’s four-team event was held near Omaha at Papillion-La Vista South High School and featured the host Titans, Ponte Vedra of the Jacksonville area, Skyview of Idaho and undefeated Cathedral Catholic of San Diego, the consensus No. 1 team in the nation.

Cathedral Catholic (31-0) won the event, sweeping Ponte Vedra, the Florida 6A runner up a year ago; in one semifinal. The Dons then swept Papio South (23-5) in the championship match. Papillion-La Vista South was 40-0 a year ago and won the Nebraska Class A title.

“They were by far the No. 1 team we’ve played all season,” said Titan coach Katie Tarman. “They were an impressive team with weapons in all places.”

• Paragon started in 1995, but gained traction in high school sports when it put LeBron James and his St. Vincent-St. Mary team on ESPN in 2002 against renowned boys basketball power Oak Hill Academy. Since then it has placed a lot of high school sport events on ESPN, mostly good, though it was responsible for scheduling IMG against the sham high school, Bishop Sycamore, last year in football.

Fortunately, the reviews from Paragon’s first two years dabbling in high school volleyball have been positive. And the ESPN exposure has been very welcome for the most popular high school sport for girls in the United States.

• Papillion–La Vista South almost wasn’t part of the Volleyball Invitational. Tarman, a teacher at the school, said that she gets so many spam emails that she routinely deletes those that she doesn’t immediately recognize. That’s how she came to delete Paragon’s first two missives this past spring.

The third email Tarman did pay attention to. It’s subject line was: “Will you please read my previous two emails?”

Tarman opened the emails, which contained an invitation to the event, all expenses paid.

Papillion-La Vista South, a school that opened in 2003 and won a national volleyball championship under National Coach of the Year Gwen Egbert in 2012, eventually was asked to host the event, something the Titans readily embraced.

“This was a showcase for everyone who’s come through since the school opened in 2003,” Tarman said. “It was a very emotional weekend because it was a reflection not just on last year’s team but the past 20 years.”

• Cathedral Catholic has played 67 sets in 2022 and hasn’t lost a single one of them. The Dons have a roster of 19, almost all of whom will play Division I at the next level. The team has drawn comparisons to last year’s Marymount team, which rivals the Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach 2007 team as the best I’ve seen in 20+ years of covering the sport at the high school level.

So, it’s neither surprising that Cathedral Catholic was invited to play in the event, nor that the Dons swept their two opponents. They simply wore teams down with their immense depth.

OH Milan Bayless had her best two matches of the season in Omaha and led the team in kills. She had 16 in the championship match and proved to be calm, confident, and aggressive.

“She bounced balls in front of defenders or blew up right back defenders time after time,” noted Cathedral Catholic assistant coach Cody Rose. “They couldn’t stop her.”

OH Julia Blyashov, the face of the team as the only four-year starter, added 13 kills in the final.

“Julia was calm, cool, and collected the entire time,” said Rose. “It’s typical for teams to try to wear her down in serve receive so that she’s less efficient in attacking. I’ve said it all year, but that’s a mistake. She’s a top tier passer and will get the job done even if you try to go after her.”

Cate Schnell, a 6-1 senior OH bound for Tennessee, who plays only back row because of all the weapons, was as consistently good as she’s been all year, Rose said.

“A true anchor for our backcourt in serve receive, defense, and backrow attacking, she had several kills out of the backrow in the championship that turned our broken plays into points,” Rose added. “We could not have asked anything more of her as she was stellar.”

Cathedral Catholic also got great back row work from sophomore libero Maya Evens, who passed consistently and dug balls left and right; and from junior setter Amanda Saeger. 

Rose called Saeger “probably the most important impact player for our team over the weekend. She consistently put our hitters in good positions every single time. She had 14 assists per set in the finals and quietly quarterbacked our high-powered offense.”

• The final score of the final was 25-23, 25-17, 25-19 Cathedral Catholic. Tarman, who’s been head coach at Papio South for the past four years, said that her Titans made the Dons work to garner the victory.

“Cathedral Catholic is amazing but we made them take time outs,” Tarman said. “We forced them into long rallies. They were stressed. Their big OH wasn’t really a factor. There were so many other kids that had to play hard. We out-blocked them. I couldn’t have asked for more. I think we maxed ourselves out. Maybe on another night we could have won.”

Everyone played well for Papio South, Tarman said. OH Stella Adeyemi, in particular, stepped up big time, bringing her power time and again. Six-rotation outside Lauren Medick was a standout in all six rotations. Libero Kenzie Dyrstad played “the best match of her life.” And setters Kyla Dyrstad and Charlee Solomon did a great job of running the offense, Solomon for a time alone after Kyla badly jammed her fingers.

“The kids fought with such heart,” Tarman said. “We competed. I can’t say enough about my kids and their character and how hard they fought.”

“Papillion-La Vista South has several losses on the season, but the way they played against us looked like a top 10 team to me,” Rose said. “Maybe it was just that specific game, but they were absolutely solid and really hard to beat. Their backrow defenders were magnificent and were digging balls left and right. Their pin attackers were relentless offensively and made us really work to win.”

• Count Cathedral Catholic as among those impressed with how well run the event was, as well as the atmosphere inside the gym at Papio South.

“The event truly felt like a championship atmosphere, from having a coach bus assigned to take us from the hotel to the school every day, the media interviews that included starting lineup videos, to the scheduled practice sessions the day before the event and on the mornings of game days,” Rose said. “There was even a banquet the night before the event started, where all teams and staff attended.

“The championship match was loud and electric. Fans filled both sides, including a large student section dressed in all white. During the second set when we were on the side with the student section behind us, the students were heckling and chanting at the girls (in an appropriate manner), trying to distract our players and put outside stress on them. During our timeouts, they yelled as loud as they could in the hope that our girls wouldn’t be able to hear [head coach] Juliana [Conn]talk in the timeout. The crowd erupted every time Papio South made great plays or we made errors. That was the best high school volleyball game atmosphere I’ve ever seen and it was really fun to be a part of; the girls loved it, too.”

Tarman also praised the event.

“I have so much pride for our school and the community,” she said. “People showed up. The Black Hole [student section] was full. It was an incredible atmosphere to play volleyball in.”

• In two days, the first of 51 state championship volleyball events for 2022 will commence. Because I know you want to know when “We are the Champions” will blare from the loudspeakers, I did the work for you:

Oct. 13-15 – Oklahoma (small schools)
Oct. 18 — Tennessee
Oct. 20-21 – Mississippi
Oct. 20-22 – Oklahoma (larger schools)
Oct. 24-25 – South Carolina (Independent schools)
Oct. 25-27 – Alabama
Oct. 25-28 — Hawaii
Oct. 28 – Maine
Oct. 28-29 – Idaho; Kansas; Utah (small schools)
Oct. 29 — Arkansas
Oct. 31 – Nov. 3 – Iowa
Oct. 31 – Nov. 4 — Kentucky
Nov. 2-5 — Nebraska
Nov. 3-5 – Utah (larger schools); Wisconsin; Wyoming
Nov. 4-5 – Georgia; Missouri; Oregon
Nov. 5 – Arizona (small schools); Indiana; New Hampshire; North Carolina; South Carolina; Vermont
Nov.9-12 – Minnesota; Texas (private schools)
Nov. 10-12 – Alaska; Colorado; Louisiana; Montana; Nevada; New Mexico; Ohio; Washington (small schools)
Nov. 11 – District of Columbia
Nov. 11-12 – Florida; Illinois
Nov. 12 – Arizona (larger schools); Rhode Island; Virginia (Independent schools)
Nov. 12-13 – West Virginia
Nov. 13 – New Jersey
Nov. 14 – Delaware
Nov. 16-17 — Maryland
Nov. 16-19 — Texas
Nov. 17-19 – North Dakota; South Dakota; Washington (larger schools)
Nov.18-19 – California; Massachusetts
Nov. 19 – Connecticut; Michigan; Pennsylvania; Virginia
Nov. 19-20 – New York

• The start of championship season got me thinking about streaks. How many schools have an active streak of three or more consecutive state titles currently working?* Here’s what I was able to come up with:

20 – Bayside Academy of Alabama — between 2A and 5A
10 – Loudoun County of Virginia – 4A
9 – Sneads of Florida – 1A
7 – Valley View of Arkansas – 4A and 5A
6 – Metairie Park Country Day of Louisiana – Division V
4 – Flint Hill of Virginia – VISAA Division I
3 – Howards Grove of Wisconsin – Division 3
3 – Mountain Brook of Alabama – 6A and 7A
3 – Bishop Gorman of Nevada – 4A and 5A

Are there others with current streaks of three or more? Let me know by emailing [email protected].

• I’ve written about it a lot but the 20 consecutive titles won by the Admirals of Bayside is insane for so many reasons:

1. The same coach, Ann Shilling, has presided over every one;

2. Bayside has won titles in four different classifications during the current streak; and
3. Has Bayside not lost in 2001, the Admirals, who won state in 2000, 1999 and 1998, would be looking at 24 straight. Bayside also won two straight titles before losing in 1994 and two straight before losing in 1997. That’s three times in the past 30 years that the team has NOT hoisted a championship trophy.

Here’s what you need to know about this year:

Bayside is 40-12 on the year and will play the state championships as a 6A school.

Mountain Brook, currently on a three-year title streak, also is in 6A. Mountain Brook currently is ranked No. 1 in 6A and the favorite to make it four titles in a row.

Bayside and Mountain Brook have not played so far this season.

If Bayside wins state in 6A, it will be the greatest coaching accomplishment in her 34 years of coaching encompassing almost 1,700 wins.

*I did not count the Covid year of 2020 if a state canceled its state tournament that year.

• At Dots, we’re on the lookout for players who put up outrageous single-match stat lines. We are asking coaches on our list to let us know if any of their players achieved any of these benchmarks:

55 assists in a match
35 kills in a match
35 digs in a match
10 blocks in a match
10 aces in a match

We learned of these new achievements this week:

35 or more kills in a match
Halsey Brummit, 5-11 Sr. OH, Clackamas – 37 kills in five-set win over David Douglas on Oct. 3.

10 or more aces in a match
Chloe Fisher, 5-8 Soph. S, Smithsburg (Maryland) – 10 aces in a match

10 or more blocks in a match
Aurie Fisher, 5-11 Sr. MB, Wando (Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina) – 11 blocks in a match versus Bishop England (whose 18 consecutive titles was snapped in 2018)

Monica Schenk, 5-11 MB, West Florence (Florence, South Carolina) – 11 blocks in a match

Do you have any players who have met these benchmarks? Let me know at [email protected]. Be sure to check the last two editions of Dots for other stat stars.

Until next time …

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John Tawa