Lady Devils prepare for Crossover tourney
Thursday, September 18, 2008 11:49 PM PDT
By Rick McCorkle
Printable version
E-mail this articleAfter having mixed results in their five nonleague matches, the Lower Columbia College Lady Devils will make a run for a tournament crown at the NWAACC Crossover Tournament today and Saturday at Truman Myklebust Gym.
“I absolutely think we’re ready for this, because we’ve played all of our nonleague matches at home and it’s time for a little variety,” LCC coach Marcy Gilchrist said. “This will give us a chance to play more than one team in one day instead of having to wait several days between matches.”
The tournament is LCC’s final nonleague tune-up before its Western Division opener at Green River on Wednesday.
LCC (2-3) is seeded into one of the tournament’s two four-team pools, along with Mount Hood
(2-4), Olympic (2-7) and Centralia (1-7). The other pool features fourth-ranked Pierce (4-3), 10th-ranked Wenatchee Valley (7-5), Whatcom (5-9) and Blue
Mountain (5-6).
Centralia’s roster includes freshman middle blocker Hilary Luhn of Toledo, and BriAnne Culbertson of R.A. Long is a sophomore defensive specialist at Mount Hood.
“The teams were seeded into the pools based on last year’s finishes,” Gilchrist said. “We don’t know a lot about the teams besides Mount Hood. They (the Saints) are probably the team to beat.”
LCC dropped a 3-2 decision to Mount Hood on Sept. 3.
Besides the event at LCC, the NWAACC is holding Crossover Tournaments at Treasure Valley College in Ontario, Ore., Southwestern Oregon College in Coos Bay and at Bellevue College.
Pool play begins at 2 p.m. today with LCC meeting Olympic. All matches are best-of-three. LCC also plays Mount Hood at 6:30, and wraps up pool play with Centralia at 9 a.m. Saturday.
All teams will be seeded into a single-elimination bracket based on pool-play results, with bracket play set to begin at noon. The tournament title match will be played at 4:30.
“I have confidence in our team because we’ve been working hard during practices, along with their workouts after practice,” Gilchrist said. “We’re still young and have some kinks to work out, but that’s what these tournament are for.”
Tournament admission is free.
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