2015 Southerns Recap: Day Two
Jason Pierce
Posted: May 10, 2015 06:40 PM
On Championship Sunday at the 2015 High School Southerns, Carolina Friends School took home the title in the boys' division and Paideia claimed the girls' division title.
Photo: Christina Schmidt/Ultiphotos (full gallery)
Boys' Division
Paideia had a chance for a school sweep at Southerns this year, but top-seeded Carolina Friends proved a formidable opponent in the finals. Led by junior Dillon Lanier and sophomore Liam Searles-Bohs, the Fighting Quakers overcame an early break by Paideia and took half 7-3. The second half was more of the same, and even rain and wind gusts couldn’t really slow down the Carolina Friends offense. The Paideia Gruel offense was solid in the second half against a tenacious Fighting Quaker defense and scored some impressive points with patient work all the way down the field, but it wasn’t enough. Carolina Friends took the game 13-7.
In placement bracket play, an injury-ravaged East Chapel Hill team nearly ended Paideia’s title hopes in the quarterfinals, losing on double-game-point after leading most of the second half.
Sunday saw some other close games in the first round. Brookwood faced Apex, with Apex overcoming an early four-point deficit to bring the score back a manageable 11-9, only to lose steam and the game 13-9; HB Woodlawn saw a similar lead evaporate against Lakeside but managed to hold on to win 10-8 at the cap.
Catholic carried their winning ways from day one into bracket play by beating Grady 13-10 only to have to face Paideia in the semifinals where they fell 13-8.
In the other semifinal, Carrboro gave the eventual champs their toughest game playing up to the time cap before Carolina Friends won 10-7.
Girls' Division
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Paideia Varsity continued to dominate throughout bracket play and cruised into the finals where they had to face a determined Carrboro squad who broke seed Saturday and never looked back with lopsided victories taking them to the finals.
In an entertaining game that was closer than the final score indicated, Paideia’s zone proved to be the difference as they forced Carrboro into one throw too many throughout the game to win 12-3. Despite the score, it was a great match up. The game was a battle of number 17s, with Carrboro freshman Kate Lanier doing a lot of the heavy lifting for her squad while being marked (and marking) Paideia sophomore standout Isabel Arevalo. Seniors Danielle Sawyer and Marina Winkler helped keep Carrboro competitive throughout, while on the other side, senior Helen Samuel made some athletic plays on both offense and defense to spark Paideia at key moments.
The rest of the competition field featured some close games, including a double-game-point thriller in the first round of the day between Grady and Blackman, with Grady winning a back-and-forth final point at the cap 11-10.
HB Woodlawn and University School of Nashville (USN) traded points throughout their game as well, with HB Woodlawn coming from down 4-6 to win 8-6 at the cap.
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Photo: Christina Schmidt/Ultiphotos |
The quarterfinal match ups between USN and Green Hope and East Chapel Hill and Grady proved quite dramatic, with Green Hope edging USN 7-6 and East Chapel Hill stopping Grady 11-8. The close games may have exhausted Green Hope and East Chapel Hill, as both were handled easily in the semifinals.
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