The Holy Family Catholic girls and Carolina Friends School boys rolled to convincing victories in Chattanooga.
March 11, 2016 by Eric Williams in Coverage, Recap with 2 comments
As the high school season kicks into gear, early season favorites Holy Family Catholic Omega (Girls) and Carolina Friends School Quakers (Boys) lived up to their billing, coming away as champions of Deep Freeze 2016. Despite the high level of talent and array of competition displayed in Chattanooga last weekend, neither team was ever really challenged, even in the championship games.
Girls Division
In the girls division, Omega blanked Paideia Groove 6-0 to start the championship game, eventually winning 11-4 to earn the tournament title. Being the lone girls team not from the southern region did not scare Omega in the slightest. Coming to the south to play is not entirely new to the Cincinnati program; both boys and girls teams have attended Deep Freeze since 2014 and are also regular attendees at the well-known Paideia Cup. The final in Chattanooga may very well see a rematch during the Atlanta tournament next month and Groove will hope not to start as slowly in their own back yard.
Groove made their way to the final by taking out the University School of Nashville girls in the semis. While the Atlanta powerhouse earned the easy victory, USN did find cause for cheer in scoring their only goal of the game on the final point, after the hard cap had blown. University School of Nashville tied for third place on the weekend with the ladies from Grady Gauntlet, who fell to Holy Family Catholic in the other girls semifinal.
Boys Division
Carolina Friends School met the surprise team of the tournament, Grady Gauntlet, in the boys final. Grady broke seed in defeating their Georgia friends Paideia Gruel 7-6 in the semifinals, earning a shot at tournament favorite CFS. But Gauntlet could not match the efficiency of the Quakers, who scored the first five points of the game. Grady eventually found a way to get on the board, but the reigning Southerns Champion’s offense was too proficient throughout, capping off a perfect weekend with a 13-4 victory in the finals.
With the loss of one of their top players — U-20 National Team player Dillon Lanier went down with a sprained ankle and left the weekend in a walking boot — CFS relied on key contributions from his sister Kate Dillon and other accomplished players, who filled their roles quite nicely. While they will eagerly await the return of Lanier, the depth and consistency of the young Quakers squad is a scary testament to the growth of youth talent in the North Carolina area. Exceedingly efficient, the CFS team has a spirited yet focused approach that is hard to describe. This team should have the biggest targets on their back come May in the final USAU High School Regional Championships.
Paideia, who were upset by Grady, finished their weekend in third place, tying with Independence Flight (Thompson’s Station, TN) despite beating them the day before in pool play.
See below for highlights from both the girls and boys finals.
