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) Libby Peigen signed a volleyball scholarship on Wednesday with Lee University. |
Ooltewah High School all-state performer Libby Peigen signed a volleyball scholarship with Lee University on Wednesday morning.
During a ceremony in the Ooltewah High library, Peigen signed papers that will re-unite her with two former Ooltewah teammates -- Lee rising juniors Gretchen Higdon and Sarah Smith.
"Lee will be getting an outstanding person and a very good volleyball player,'' said Ooltewah volleyball coach Elaine Peigen, Libby's mother. "She will be totally committed to helping make their program even better. I've been coaching her since the sixth grade, so next year is going to be very different.''
Lee, coached by Andrea Hudson, advanced to the NAIA Final Four last season. Hudson's teams have won more than 30 games 13 times, and Hudson picked up her 600th victory last fall.
"We're so excited to get Libby,'' Hudson said. "We have known coach Peigen for a long time and have enjoyed watching Libby develop into such a quality volleyball player. We're looking for kids like Libby who can help us win a national championship.
"I love Libby's heart, she's a good girl. And you won't find a harder worker than Libby. She's coming into a great program and we've very excited to have her.''
Peigen helped Ooltewah advance to the Class AAA state tournament her senior season.
"She was a great leader for us on and off the court,'' Ooltewah assistant coach Heidi Moses said. "She played every position for us. Our goal was to get back to the state tournament this year and she reminded the girls of that every day in practice.''
Peigen made the Tennessee Sports Writers Association 2009 All-State team. She has been chosen all-district three times and all-region twice during her career. She was voted most athletic at Ooltewah High and is president of the Ooltewah Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
"During my visit it felt like God was pressing on my heart to be at Lee,'' Libby said. "I just knew it was the place for me, a second home. I'm excited about playing for coach Hudson and about joining my former teammates there.''
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Ooltewah's Libby Peigen is joined by her teammates after signing a volleyball scholarship with Lee University.
Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009
Sullivan sparks Lady Owls to 5-AAA title
Morgan Sullivan's save of what looked like a sure point for Cleveland not only enabled a lifeless Ooltewah team the chance to score a much-needed point, an energy transfusion seemed to pervade through the Lady Owls' half of the court afterward. That, and a little change in defensive philosophy went a long way in sparking Ooltewah to a 3-1 victory over Cleveland.
Ooltewah (42-10) will host White County in a Region 3 semfinal Monday. Cleveland (24-16) will play at District 6 champion Cookeville. Times have not yet been determined.
The Lady Raiders won the first game of the final 25-13 and were leading 19-12 in the second game when Ooltewah coach Elaine Peigen used her fourth timeout of the match and her last of that game. On the ensuing rally, the Lady Owls had already hit the ball twice when Sullivan ran down a ball headed toward the backline. Lunging the opposite direction, she knocked the ball back over the net and kept it in play.
"With momentum and everything that's going on, you don't really think about anything," Sullivan said of her effort. "You're just thinking 'Get it over, get it over, get it over.' I really did feel like that got us going."
The Lady Owls went on to win the point and eventually took their first lead of the game at 26-25. That was also the first of their five game-points -- Cleveland had four -- and they eventually won the game 35-33. Ooltewah went on to win the next two games 25-21 each.
Five Lady Owls ended up on the all-tournament team, led by most valuable player Martin, who also had 10 digs and five blocks. Audra Morgan supported Martin with 12 kills. Coach's daughter Libby Peigen topped Ooltewah with 20 digs and Kennisha Cook led with 27 assists. Loren Bennett's all-around performance included eight kills, 22 assists, nine digs and three aces.
"I think one of the reasons we're as good as we are is because we contributions from everybody," Coach Peigen said. "Kianna Delaney didn't make the all-tournament team but she played well. She had some good kills for us at some good times. Morgan Sullivan had been kind of discouraged, then she made that really good dig and we started to see her pick up out there again."
Peigen said she thought one reason for her players' lackluster start was that they didn't do a good job receiving serves at the first part of the match. She gave them credit for applying a defensive change from the bench in the middle of the match. The opposite rang true for Cleveland.
"The big thing that made them win, I thought, was they made adjustments," Cleveland coach Patricia Flowers said. "We tried to make adjustments, but the girls didn't utilize what we put in and kept reverting back to what we had been doing."
Kristen Pickett paced the Lady Raiders with 13 kills and 26 digs and she also chipped in with 13 assists. Morgan Isom led the passing with 19 assists and she also had 11 kills and 17 digs. They were chosen all-tournament along with Q'Schara Brown, who had 12 kills and three blocks in the final, and Payton Tipton, who had 20 digs.
by Stan Crawley
posted October 14, 2009
CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Ooltewah’s Lady Owls didn’t get off to a pretty start in the District 5-AAA championship match here Wednesday night at Cleveland Middle School.
In the high school volleyball final, Cleveland’s Lady Raiders won the first game, 25-13.
In the second game, Cleveland raced to a 19-12 lead and appeared poised to increase the lead to 20-12 before a fantastic save by Ooltewah’s Morgan Sullivan that eventually led Ooltewah to a point and a 19-13 deficit.
The Lady Owls then won the next five points and finally won the game, 35-33, on back-to-back kills from tournament MVP Alex Martin and Sullivan.
Ooltewah (37-12) will play host to White County on Monday night at 7 in a Region 3 semifinal. Cleveland (25-16) will travel to play Cookeville in the other semifinal.
The region championship match will be hosted Tuesday night by the higher-seeded remaining team from District 5. If Ooltewah and Cleveland each lose, the final would be at Cookeville.
State sectionals will be played Thursday, Oct. 22.
“Morgan’s save in game two was great for us and for Morgan,’’ Ooltewah coach Elaine Peigen said. “She knew she was having an off-night and that play really help build her confidence.’’
Said Ooltewah senior Libby Peigen, “That first game was ugly, we weren’t ready to play. That save by Morgan got us going. We knew we could go from there because it gave us momentum. We picked it up and became the Ooltewah team we knew we could be. I’m proud of us.’’
Martin led Ooltewah with 21 kills, 10 digs, five blocks and four service points. Peigen, Audra Morgan, Kennisha Cook and Loren Bennett were also chosen to the all-tournament team.
“We knew we would have our hands full tonight,’’ Peigen said. “The big factor for us is everyone contributes. Morgan Sullivan and Kianna Delaney didn’t make the all-tournament team, but played well for us tonight. It was a great team effort.’’
Cleveland, which upset Soddy-Daisy in a semifinal on Tuesday night, was led by Morgan Isom’s 17 digs, 11 kills and 19 assists.
“I’m proud of the way we played, but Ooltewah had a little more fight than us tonight,’’ Cleveland coach Tricia Flowers said. “Ooltewah made some good adjustments. We made some adjustments, but the girls kept reverting back to what they were doing before. Still, we fought very hard. Both of these teams are very good.’’
Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009
Ooltewah, Cleveland set 5-AAA final
They also had to contend with Walker Valley and Soddy-Daisy.
The Lady Owls and the Lady Raiders will meet in this evening's championship match at 6 at Cleveland Middle School, after Ooltewah defeated Walker Valley 3-2 and Cleveland trumped the Lady Trojans by the same score.
Ooltewah (36-12) fell behind 2-0 in its match. The scores were 23-25, 28-30, 25-19, 25-18, 15-10.
"I knew that (Lady Mustangs coach) Judy Pruett's team would be the most improved of anybody, and I was right," Ooltewah coach Elaine Peigen said. "I didn't want to play them in the tournament, but we did and her girls played excellent. We were very fortunate to get out of that match."
In the fifth game, the Lady Owls fell behind 6-2, but Alex Martin had a trio of kills to cut the lead to 6-5. Ooltewah took the lead for good at 9-8 and held off a feisty Walker Valley team.
"When we got down, I was thinking, 'Oh no! What do we have to do?" Peigen said. "But the girls stepped up, really played from the heart and came through."
Martin had 26 kills to lead the Lady Owls, who had 70 as a team.
"I think we showed how good of a team we could be in that first game, and also in the second," said Pruett, who loses nine seniors. "I told the girls after that second game that Ooltewah wanted this match just as much as we did -- and they did, but I think the girls played hard until the end. They didn't finish a couple of things, but they played great.
"Ooltewah is a great team, probably one of the best in the state. We played them well several times but just couldn't finish at the end."
The Lady Raiders had to deal with the adversity of the past two seasons, in which they had lost four consecutive matches to Soddy-Daisy. In the fifth game, they were down 9-5 when Cleveland coach Tricia Flowers called time out.
"It was intense," Flowers said of the break. "We had to remind them about how we had worked so hard to get to this point. We shouted a lot about showing some Cleveland pride, and we went back out on fire."
Cleveland (25-15) outscored the Lady Trojans 10-3 the rest of the way for a 17-25, 25-19, 25-22, 21-25, 15-12 victory.
"We knew all along that we were stronger as a team," Flowers said. "We didn't play scared; we played with confidence. We were prepared and wanted this so bad. Every girl stepped up, and I'm so proud of them."
The teams had battled to a 20-all tie in the fourth game when Q'Schara Brown hit a ball off the net and out of bounds. The Cleveland bench argued the ball had been tipped, but the point ultimately was awarded to Soddy-Daisy. The Lady Trojans (34-9) used that momentum and a couple of big kills by Andrea Johnson to tie the match at two games apiece.
"I know it's cliche, but momentum does change so much in volleyball. One minute you're on top of the world; the next you having to find yourself from deep within," Flowers said.
"It's nice to have secured a region berth, but we don't want to settle. Last year we were region runners-up, so we want to reach our goal and win the region. We tend to play pretty well against Ooltewah, but we're not going to have as much time to prepare.
"If we play like we did tonight, it will be some good volleyball."
Lady Owls rebound to top Soddy-Daisy
Soddy-Daisy volleyball coach Lorri Johnson knew she wasn't seeing the "real Ooltewah" when she viewed tape of her team's recent high school match against the Lady Owls in preparation for Wednesday's match at Ooltewah. She has that footage now.
The Lady Owls raced to a two-game lead, then went stale for a period in a 25-18 loss in the third game before rebounding and winning 25-11 to close out a 3-1 victory.
The teams entered tied atop the District 5-AAA standings at 8-1 each. Soddy-Daisy (24-7) lost 3-2 to Walker Valley in its first match of the season. The Lady Owls' district loss was last Thursday when the Lady Trojans hosted and swept them.
"We were really shocked at how we played last week," Ooltewah coach Elaine Peigen said. "This time we realized we had to play ball and needed to win, and everybody contributed."
Scores of Wednesday's first two games were 25-18, 25-23.
"We didn't play well at all and still had a shot in both of them," Johnson said. "We didn't take advantage of their weak spots. Game three we capitalized on that quite a bit."
Ooltwah (25-8) owned a two-point lead in the third game but got outscored 10-1 down the stretch. Sarah Davis had five consecutive service points in that span -- one when one of her 11 digs in the match flew over the net and wound up a winner.
"The third game I was real disappointed," Peigen said. "I think we lost our focus. We didn't play with any intensity. We were talking and giggling and laughing. When the fourth game came around I said 'Don't start.'"
The Lady Owls won a bizarre first point -- one in which the ball came close to hitting the floor a couple of times on both sides of the floor. Libby Peigen followed with an ace, and by the time Alex Martin drove home her first kill of the game the Lady Trojans were calling timeout down 6-0.
"We just fell flat all of a sudden," Johnson said.
Martin is the Ooltewah's top hitter and paced them again with 17 kills. Kianna Delaney and Morgan Sullivan provided help at the net with four blocks apiece and Delaney was one of two Lady Owls with eight kills.
"We got eight kills from Loren Bennett and she's our setter," Coach Peigen said. "That was probably one of her best matches all year."
Bennett's all-around effort also included 19 assists, nine digs and seven service points. She also had a block and combined on another.
Andrea Johnson led Soddy-Daisy with 10 kills and 18 assists. Kelly Ware, who drew praise from her coach for some good passes, had a team-high 15 digs and was one of five Lady Trojans that ended up with at least 11.
"We played way too much defense, obviously," Coach Johnson said.
Martin's 15 kills pace Ooltewah
Junior blocker Alex Martin easily leads Ooltewah High School's volleyball team in kills this season, and the 6-footer's 15 paced the Lady Owls' 3-0 District 5-AAA home victory Tuesday against Cleveland. Game scores were 25-20, 25-13, 25-18.
Martin also was credited with two and a half blocks against the Lady Raiders, although that's the area of her game she feels needs the most improvement. Even so, she has been contacted by several universities and already received a scholarship offer from Belmont.
It's hard not to notice her hitting. The anticipation can be felt by Ooltewah's home crowd when she receives a set. When she responds with a resounding kill, then come the oohs and ahs.
"To me I think Alex could dominate the whole area if she chose to," said Ooltewah coach Elaine Peigen, whose team is now 16-6. "I don't think our team is playing up to its potential yet. They've yet to realize they need to go out and play hard 110 percent of the time, not 50 percent here, 50 percent there.
"We're expecting big things out of Alex, but I think we're expecting big things out of everybody this year."
Martin transferred from Silverdale Baptist Academy last year but was ineligible to play on the varsity until postseason began. She was limited to playing junior varsity during the season but was recovering from a broken foot she suffered in the summer and was trying to ease back into volleyball anyway.
After middle blocker Abby Saunders broke her hand, it seemed to work out that Martin became available. However, the Lady Owls were unable to make the transition quickly and their postseason run wasn't as long as they would've liked.
They're hoping for a different outcome this time. Their 5-0 record in a competitive district shows what they're capable of doing.
"My goal is to make it to state," Martin said. "I think that's everybody's goal. We just all have to pull together and do our part. We're talented enough."
Libby Peigen and Audra Morgan supported Martin on Tuesday with eight and seven kills, respectively. Peigen led with 11 digs and Kennisha Cook made 14 assists.
Kristen Pickett sparked Cleveland (13-13, 3-3) with eight kills, 13 digs and 10 assists.
Central's Cantrell hurt
Central received some bad news when it learned that Lauren Cantrell suffered a fracture in her chest when she was involved in a four-wheeling accident Saturday.
"She's our only senior and our captain," Central assistant coach Jessica Stoker said. "She was one of our key players and someone the rest of the team looked up to."
Pulling together in her abscence, the youthful Lady Pounders beat Brainerd and Tyner but lost to East Ridge in District 5-AA matches the last two days. Sophomores Ciara Strickland and Jade Stoker were energizers Tuesday, Stoker leading with 13 kills in two matches at East Ridge. Ariel Higgins had five of their 20 aces against the Lady Rams.
The team's juniors are Erin Barclay, Whitney Hughes and Lacey Moore. Freshman Taylor Williamson also is a key contributor.
Coach Stoker said Cantrell must go through therapy but is expected back before postseason in early October. At 4-6, Central has already topped last year's victory total, but its goal is a winning record.
"Our young girls have really stepped it up," the coach said. "They're ready to keep it going."
Tandem hosting
GPS and Ooltewah are teaming Saturday to host the Tennessee Tandem tournament. Twenty-five varsity teams are in the competition, which begins with pool play at 8 a.m.
Single-elimination is set to start at 6 p.m., with teams with the best records playing in the Gold Division at GPS and the others playing at Ooltewah in the Silver Division. Finals are scheduled for 9.
Lady Owls Defeat Lady Mustangs
If Walker Valley's matches are any indication, the new District 5-AAA created by the TSSAA's reclassification is going to offer up several gut-wrenching battles in volleyball.
Ooltewah hosted and defeated the Lady Mustangs 3-2 on Wednesday. The game scores were 25-15, 25-21, 19-25, 23-25, 15-13.
"That was a wonderful match," Ooltewah coach Elaine Peigen said. "That was fun to play. Our district is nothing but all strong teams. You never know what's going to happen."
Walker Valley (7-3), which will play its first home match of the season today when it hosts McMinn County in a district match at 6 p.m., beat Soddy-Daisy 3-2 in its first district match Aug. 25.
"Our district has got some great teams," Walker Valley coach Judy Pruett said. "It'll probably be a five-game match every time out. Hopefully we'll come out on the winning end in the rest of them."
Peigen wasn't sure what prompted her team to snap out of the mode they had slipped into and get off to a 6-1 lead in the fifth game. She didn't have a problem analyzing what contributed to the Lady Owls' two losses.
"Our offense slowed down and we started hitting a lot of higher balls," Peigen said. "Their defense was good, too. I don't think we adjusted very well to their tips."
Although her team rallied and tied the final game three times -- the last at 12 -- Pruett noted that Ooltewah (4-0, 3-0) was too good of a team to spot a five-point edge to in a game to 15.
Alex Martin was a force for the Lady Owls with 27 kills and seven blocks. Peigen had praise in particular for Morgan Sullivan, who offered good support with some timely kills among her 13.
The coach's daughter, Libby, celebrated her 18th birthday Wednesday and led the Lady Owls with 53 digs. However, she was first to serve in the match and gave the Lady Mustangs a lead when she sailed one across the backline.
A kill by Caitlin Geren made it 2-0 and Walker Valley eventually held an 8-5 advantage. Ooltewah took the lead for good when it broke a tie at 10 with a run of five consecutive points.
The 17-17 score in the second game marked the 13th time it was tied. The Lady Owls benefited from back-to-back spikes into the net and went on to win from there.
"The third game we decided to start playing and we came together as a team," Pruett said. "We made a lot less errors than we made the first two games."
