2014 HS Southerns - Sunday Recap
Ashley Boncimino
Posted: May 11, 2014 11:10 PM
Carolina Friends take the boys' division title; Saga repeats as girls' division champions
Boys' Division (Schedule) Girls' Division (Schedule)
The day started out with eliminations on the girls' side and the first round of consolation bracket games for the boys. In the boys' division, Brookwood, Catholic, Lakeside and East Chapel Hill edged out University School of Nashville, Fernandina Beach, Blackman and Woodside respectively in the ninth-place quarterfinals.
The girls’ quarterfinals all kept to seed. North Carolina’s girls' division combination team Saga took an early 13-3 win against Blackman, which pit them against H-B Woodlawn in the semifinals. The other first seed team, Paideia’s Groove Varsity, also won early with a score of 13-2 against Grady. The USN girls' team won a close 8-7 game against Woodside, which put them against top-seeded Paideia Groove Varsity.
The Carrboro Clams played top-seeded Carolina Friends in the quarterfinals, which was a much-anticipated game after an exciting crossover round on Saturday that put the Clams in the championship bracket. Carrboro kept the game close for the first three points, but Carolina Friends pulled ahead to a 7-4 score at half and went on to win 12-9. Carrboro went on to tie for fifth place by three points against H-B Woodlawn. Carrboro tied with Yorktown, who won their game against Grady 10-8.
Independence fought Yorktown in the bottom half of the bracket's quarterfinal match ups, winning 13-5 and moving ahead to play the winner of Paideia/Grady in the semifinals. Second seed Paideia was down three points to Grady early on, but pulled ahead to 7-6 by halftime and eventually won 12-8.
Woodlawn scored the first two points against Chapel Hill before the latter made a seven-point run to half and ended up winning 13-6, allowing them to move forward to play Carolina Friends in the semifinals.
Three of the four original top seeds made it to the boys' semifinals, as second seeded Chapel Hill upset Lakeside 11-8 on Saturday. All four of the the top predicted teams on the girls' side made it to semifinals, pitting Saga against Woodlawn and USN against Paideia’s varsity team.
For the boys' semifinals, games started out looking like blowouts, but Chapel Hill gave top-seeded Carolina Friends a good game with a final score of 12-8. Independence scalded Paideia in the first half of the semifinals, showing up the Atlanta team 7-1 at halftime and winning 13-4.
The boys' finals were close at halftime with Carolina Friends just a point ahead of Independence, 7-6. Independence did a nice job of moving the disc and kept to clean, safe passes, but Carolina Friends prevailed with a strong second half and a final score of 12-7.
"The defense was simply locked down," said Carolina Friends coach Rim Vilgalys. "We did a great job moving it to the break side…It was an all-team effort."
In the girls' division, last year’s winner, Saga from North Carolina, progressed through the quarterfinals and semifinals against Blackman (13-3) and Woodlawn (11-2) all the way to the finals, which pitted them in a rematch of the 2013 finals against Atlanta’s Paideia varsity' team.
Groove had bested their competition with similar margins earlier in the day, beating Grady 13-2 and University School of Nashville 13-1. The closest Sunday girls' game was the quarterfinal match up between USN and Woodside, where the two teams were within one or two points of each other the entire time. USN eventually edged out Woodside 8-7, but lost to Paideia in the semifinals.
Saga and Paideia played neck and neck for the first three points of the championship final before Saga pulled ahead to a 7-3 lead at the half. Paideia relied heavily on crashing Saga’s zone defense, but both teams played well in the high-turnover, long-point game.
Saga pulled ahead in the second half of the championship game, finally winning 12-6 at the end of the day.
"This is probably the best we’ve played this year," said Saga coach Joshua Hartzog. "We stepped it up a level today…We never really let the other team get into a rhythm."
Spirit awards went to Paideia’s girls' JV team and the Yorktown Patriots in the boys' division, though volunteers noted that Carrboro and USN also displayed a high level of sportsmanship.
Photos by UltiPhotos (Extended Highlights)
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