By Rod Gipson
MaxPreps.com
After a rough outing in the Berkeley Premier tournament, Tampa Plant and Tampa Berkeley Prep had better showings at the Tampa Bay Invitational volleyball tournament Oct. 5-6.
Plant had a tough semifinal, outlasting Fort Myers Bishop Verot 24-26, 25-20, 25-21, 20-25, 15-10. Berkeley Prep advanced to the finals after topping Fort Myers in its semifinal match 25-22, 25-23, 25-21.
In the final, Plant's Maddie Martin posted 11 kills to lead the Panthers to a 25-22, 25-23, 25-19 tournament title. Berkeley was led by Lindsay Young who had 14 kills and five blocks.
Just a week before, both squads had a tough time at the Berkeley tournament, going up against some of the better volleyball squads from across the nation. Plant placed fifth at the premier event while Berkeley placed 13th at its event.
Tampa Sickles, meanwhile, saw its' 12-match winning streak end Oct. 2.
Sickles lost 25-23, 25-23, 19-25, 25-20 to Class 6A, District 7 rival new Port Richey Mitchell. At 18-4 and winners of 13 of its past 14 matches, the Gryphons head to the district tournament as the top seed.
Also, Brandon volleyball coach Amy Watson celebrated her 100th career victory October 2 as the Eagles defeated Tampa King 25-15, 25-8, 25-23. A former player at the University of Tampa, Watson has coached at Brandon for six seasons. The Eagles are 12-2 this season.
Standout Golfer Commits
Seminole golfer Meghan Chapman has orally committed to North Carolina State. Chapman, whose 72 at last year's state regional tournament was the lowest score among all Pinellas County competitors, also was recruited by Florida, Mississippi and Tulane.
Chapman narrowly missed out on the state tournament in 2006, losing in the regional tournament by a stroke in a playoff against Manatee's Maria Ronderos.
In other golf happenings, with the area's district tournaments teeing off Oct. 15, several golfers have recorded their best scores at recent matches. Plant City Durant's Amy West had successive rounds of 2-under-34 and 3-under-33 in the Cougar's last two wins. The 9-0 Cougars at the favorite at the Class 2A, District 11 meet in Plant City.
Other solid performances last week came from Tampa Jesuit trent Silver, who shot a 1-under-35 in a win against Tampa Berkeley Prep and Tampa Freedom's Greg Krzeminski tied a school record with even-par-36 at Tampa Palms Golf Club.
Tampa Jesuit Runs Well - Again
In one of the more prestigious races of the cross country season, the Tampa Bay area was well-represented. The Bay area had two individual runners finish in the top ten of the Flrunners Invitational in Titusville.
Tampa Sickles' Derek Wehunt placed fourth at 15:58 while Tampa Berkeley Prep's Richard Blake was seventh (16:07) and Tampa Jesuit's Connor Revord was ninth (16:10) in the boys race of champions division.
Led by Revord, the Tigers placed three other runners among the top 30 to take first place overall in the team standings. Jordan Schilit, Matt Tucker and Logan Trimble all had solid performances to help lift the Tigers.
Sickles, meanwhile, placed seventh as a team, while Tampa Chamberlain was 12th and Berkeley Prep was 14th.
