Lady Mohawks preparing for district tourney play

The Piggott Lady Mohawks prepped for this weekend's district tournament at CRA late last week, posting a decisive road win over Walnut Ridge. Saturday they'll begin the quest for yet another trip to the 3A state volleyball tournament at Harrison..but unlike recent seasons this time the Tribe will have to play their way into a spot.

"Before the season started several of the coaches decided we needed to have a conference tournament, something we haven't done for years," Coach Melissa Williams noted, "normally the top three finishers would automatically qualify, but they wanted to change that this year." Actually, for the Lady Mohawks the move has turned out to be beneficial, based on their fourth-place finish in the talented conference.

Brookland took first place in their final year as a 3A school, while Harrisburg and CRA tied in conference but the Lady Falcons won the tiebreaker so they finish second to the Hornets third. Meanwhile, the Mohawks end-up as the number four seeds.

"We should end up playing Ridgefield Christian sometime Saturday, but the key is to get by Harrisburg," Williams noted of the bracket.

The Harrisburg coach was actually one of the major proponents of the tournament, but based on the Hornets third place finish they would have been better off under the old system. Now they're also forced to try to play their way into the tournament, where they would have been insured a spot in Harrison under last year's format.

The seeding meeting for the tournament was scheduled for today (Wednesday, Oct. 14) and the games are being played at Crowley's Ridge Academy. With a third place or better finish the Lady Mohawks will once-again qualify for the state 3A tournament at Harrison Oct. 27-29. The state finals will be played on Saturday, Oct. 31 at Westside High School at Jonesboro.