The Soddy-Daisy Lady Trojans opened their 2007 season with a big 3-1 win over defending state champions Notre Dame on Tuesday.

Soddy-Daisy won the first game in a convincing fashion, 25-11. Notre Dame
came back in the second game with a 25-23 victory. The Lady Trojans turned up the offense and won the next two games 25-8 and 25-15.

The Lady Irish fought back in the final game to cut an early Trojan lead to 18-15.

Soddy-Daisy took back the lead after a great pass on a tough Notre Dame serve.

The Trojans' Andrea Johnson stepped
up and served the final six points of the game. Four of those final serves were aces.

Abbey Thaxton scored the game's
final point with a kill down the line.

Coach Duane Hill is at the helm of the Lady Irish squad for his first year. He comes to Chattanooga after coaching 15 years in Atlanta.

Soddy-Daisy Stats:
Lauren Traub recorded 10 kills, 4 blocks, and 2 aces.
Brynn Atchley had 6 kills, 15 digs, and 6 aces.
Cassie Conners had a match high 19 assists, 2 digs, and 1 ace.
Nicole Millsaps recorded 17 digs and 2 aces in game 4.
Ashley England had 7 kills and 6 blocks.
Andrea Johnson had 12 kills, 6 digs, 7 blocks, 17 assists, and 7 aces.
Abbey Thaxton had 5 kills, 4 digs and 4 assists.
Shelby Garren had 4 aces and 3 digs.
Shelby Wilson had 10 digs.
Hayli Raines made her freshman debut with 2 kills and 2 blocks.

Ooltewah def. Cleveland 25-19,25-16, 24-26, 25-16

The Lady Owls claimed their first win on Tuesday at Cleveland. Ooltewah defeated the Lady Raiders 3-1 with what Coach Eliane Peigen called an "outstanding team effort".

Ooltewah was ranked No. 1 in the Chattanoogan.com coaches' pre-season poll and Cleveland knew they were facing a tough opponent.

"I knew coming into tonght's game that we would be facing probably one
of the toughest teams we would play all season," Cleveland coach Patricia Flowers said.

"We did some good things, but we have a lot of work to do to solidify our game before we face Ooltewah in the region tournament, which is our goal".

"Ooltewah looked very solid and impressive. We have proven every year that we are capable at beating them in a game. We want to prove that we can beat them in a match"

For Ooltewah Gretchen Higdon had 36 assists, 11 points and three aces. Taylor Gatewood put up 7.5 blocks, served seven points and made 13 kills. Courtney Cotter made 25 digs, 15 kills, and served five points.

For Cleveland seniors Rachael Isom and Cacey Burtnett and juniors Jordan beard and Morgan Isom led the team. Racheal Isom had 14 digs, 10 kills, and an ace, Burtnett had 15 digs, eight kills, 10 Blocks, and an ace. Beard had 10 digs, two kills and two aces, Morgan Isom had seven digs, two kills, one block, two aces and 15 assists.

The Lady Owls start off the season 1-0 and will travel to GPS on Thursday.

Additional stats for Cleveland:
Heather Carver, junior-3 digs, 3 kills, 5 blocks, 1 assist
Kristen Crumbley, junior-1 dig, 2 blocks
Carrie Morris, sophomore- 4 digs, 1 block
Courtney Delay, sophomore-11 digs
Payton Tipton, freshmen-6 digs
Ayesha Rock-4 digs, 6 assists

Hixson def. Lookout Valley 25-3, 25-10, 25-9

The Lady Wildcats opened the season with a district 6AA win at Home, Tuesday.

Dawon Millwood served 26 points for Hixson, had 14 assists and two digs. Chelsea Burroughs had two aces, eight kills, seven assist, and two digs. Jessica Gravitt had 17 service points, an ace, six kills, and one block. Taylor Landam had three kills and a block. Meghan White had five kills, Taylor Brown had three aces, two digs, and Rachel Million had eight digs.

Soddy-Daisy goes up for a kill.
- Photo2 by Greg Davick