Welcome to the fifth annual First Lady’sChallenge, sponsored by Children’s Health Care of Atlanta Sports Medicine—the organization that provides the fine trainers at all our tournaments. Our goal is to provide the opportunity for you to play lots of volleyball against a variety of opponents in this early season tournament, making this competition one you’ll want to come back to year after year. Every team will be guaranteed a minimum of seven matches, and more than half will play 8, 9 or even 10 - 11 matches over this three-day event.
To ensure diversity of play, we have combined many of the divisions for pool play only. On day three the divisions which had been combined will be separated based on teams’ registration and they will play in separate championship brackets, the seeding of which will be based on the results of pool play. Unlike many tournaments, we typically don’t pool power and club teams from the same age brackets together, as we have found that a significant number of blow-outs result. Please also understand that no team will be eliminated from contention for the tournament championship based on the results of pool play.
We will have fourteen courts available at the Georgia International Convention Center (“GICC”) for the girls, and boys will be competing on three courts at Southern Volleyball Center (“SVC”). While many of the formats are untraditional, please understand that we have gone to a great deal of effort to minimize the occurrence of repeat matches in this three-day event AND to pool teams with similar results on day 1 together on day 2 where possible, resulting in a higher number of quality matches. Consequently, many teams will play seven or even eight matches during pool play rather than the more traditional six. And for no extra charge!
TOURNAMENT FORMAT
17/18 Power –A.M. Wave – courts 1 – 4, GICC
There are six teams in the 18 Power division and nine teams in 17 Power for a total of 15. They will be organized into three pools of four teams and one pool of three, with members of the three-team pool playing three sets to 25 points irrespective of the results of the first two sets.
Teams will be re-pooled on day 2 such that they will be competing against teams that competed similarly on day 1. I.e., the four first-place finishers will be pooled together, as will the second, third and fourth-place finishers.
The 17 and 18 Power divisions will be broken apart for the Championship Brackets on Day three, with the results of pool play determining their seed. All teams will advance to their respective Championship Bracket.
15/16 Power – P.M. Wave – courts 1 – 5, GICC
There are seven teams in the 16 Power division and ten teams in 15 Power. The seventeen teams will be combined during pool play to facilitate diversity of competition. They will be organized into two, four-team pools and three, three-team pools on day 1, with members of the three-team pools being re-pooled based upon their finish (1st place finishers pooled together, as well as 2nd and 3rd place finishers.)
Teams will be re-pooled on day 2 such that they will be competing against teams that competed similarly on day 1. I.e., the winners of R1P1, R1P2, R2P1 andR2P2 will be pooled together, etc.
16 Power and 15 Power teams will be broken apart for the Championship Brackets on Day three, with the results of pool play determining their seed. All teams will advance to the Championship Bracket.
14 Power – P.M. Wave – courts 6 - 8, GICC
There are ten teams in the 14 Power division. They will be organized into a single, 10-team pool, but will not play a full round-robin. Rather, each team will play six or seven matches over the first two days. Results of pool play will be used to seed the Championship Bracket, to which all teams advance.
12 Power/12 Club – A.M. Wave -- courts 12 - 14, GICC
Five teams are entered in 12 Power and five are in 12 Club. The 10 teams will be combined during pool play to facilitate diversity of competition. They will be organized into a single, 10-team pool, but will not play a full round-robin. Rather, each team will play six or seven matches over the first two days.
The divisions will be broken apart on Day 3, with the results of pool play being used to seed the Championship Brackets, to which all teams advance.
17/18 Club -- A.M. Wave – courts 5 – 6, GICC
There are five teams entered in 18 Club and three in 17 Club. The two divisions will be combined during pool play to ensure diversity of competition. They will play in an 8-team pool in a round-robin format
Upon the conclusion of pool play, the divisions will be broken apart, with the results of pool play being used to seed the Championship Brackets, to which all teams advance. Teams registered in 17 Club will compete in a three-team Championship Pool. In the event teams are all tied 1 – 1 at the completion of Pool Play, a tiebreaker will not be played; rather, the Champion will be crowned based on set percentage, and if still tied, point percentage.
15/16 Club--A.M. Wave –courts 7 – 10, GICC
There are seven teams in the 16 Club division and seven in 15 Club. They will be combined into two pools of seven teams each during pool play to ensure diversity of competition, and broken apart for the single-elimination Championship Bracket on Monday, to which all teams will advance.
13/14 Club – P.M. Wave – courts 9 – 14, GICC
There are ten teams entered in 13 Club and twelve in 14 Club, so to ensure diversity of play, the divisions will be combined during pool play. They will be initially organized into four pools of four teams and two pools of three, with members of the three-team pools playing a cross-over match upon the completion of pool play (1 vs 1; 2 vs 2; 3 vs 3)
They will be re-pooled on Sunday such that teams finishing similarly are pooled together (i.e., first-place finishers in R1P1, R1P2, R1P3 and R1P4 will be pooled together, etc.)
The divisions will be broken apart for the Championship Bracket on Monday. The results of pool play will be used to determine seeding in the single-elimination Championship Brackets, to which all teams will advance.
18 Boys – A.M. & P.M. waves – Saturday only – courts 4 & 5, SVC
Seven teams have entered the 18 Boys division. They will be organized into one pool of four teams and one pool of three, with members of the three-team pool playing three sets to 25 points irrespective of the results of the first two sets. The top two finishers in each pool will advance to the Championship Bracket, while the 3rd and 4th place finishers will compete in the Silver Bracket.
14 Boys – A.M. & P.M. waves – Saturday only – court 3, SVC
Three teams have entered the 14 Boys division. They will compete in a single, three-team pool. Upon completion, they will finish off the tournament in a three-team bracket.
REAL-TIME, ON-LINE UPDATES:
The competition schedule, along with results, will be continuously posted in real time on advancedeventsystems.com. We will have i-pads available in the gym for those needing to check schedule obligations, results, ref assignments, etc. However, participants may wish to spare themselves the walk to the central desk (and at every AES-scheduled tournament thereafter) by downloading the AES app. Simply go to the app store, search on aes xpress, and follow the prompts.
A NOTE ABOUT SEEDS AND INITIAL POOL PAIRINGS:
Seeding the first several tournaments of the year always involves some amount of guesswork—particularly when age brackets are combined and teams from different regions are competing. We seeded teams from the Southern Region primarily based on their current regional records and/or rankings, which are beginning to level out and make sense.We investigated W/L records and/or tournament finishes for out-of region teams and placed them in the competition as best we could. Beyond that, we endeavored to put teams from the same or sister club in separate pools where possible. Lastly, given that all teams in all age brackets advance to Gold Medal Bracket Play on Monday, we’ve ensured that no team will be eliminated based on their initial seed.
Play starts in the morning at 8:00 a.m., and in the afternoon at 3:00 p.m. Doors open at 7:00 a.m. It is important to check your specific age bracket for starting times and/or officiating responsibilities on AES, as last-minute changes sometimes occur.
MATCH PROTOCOL AND WARM-UPS
All matches except where specifically noted will be based on two out of three sets to 25 (3rd, if necessary, to 15). Accordingly, it is imperative that we move quickly from match to match if we are to remain on schedule. Referees have been instructed to start the 10-minute warm-up clock immediately upon completion of the previous match, so please have your teams ready to go.
TIE-BREAKING PROCEDURES
Are more fully described in the SRVA handbook, which is posted on the SRVA website and will be available at the tournament desk. However, since tie-breaking matches will be played only to the extent that the results affect advancement to gold bracket play, and all teams advance to the gold bracket except the boys, we do not anticipate playing any tie-breakers in this tournament(again, with the exception of the Boys Division).
TEAM REFEREE OBLIGATIONS
Referee schedules are included in the pool assignments. Teams losing in bracket play on Monday will ref the next match on that court.Several teams will be required to ref the 8:00 A.M. Monday match before they play, so again, please check the website as well as the pools and brackets to see if your team is affected. Teams with 8 a.m. ref assignments must be in place on the court no later than 7:45.
Coaches, please remind your players that MP3 players and Cell Phones are not to be used while working the score table and that snacks and drink bottles should not be on the table.Scorekeepers should lift the score board and show the score frequently, minimally at serve changes and time outs.
FACILITY/PARKING
Parking at the Georgia International Convention Center is plentiful, and we have been able to negotiate a charge of $5/vehicle/day rather than the normal fee of $10.
FOOD, COOLERS, TABLES, ETC.MAY NOT BE BROUGHT INTO GICC
The concession stand will be open, and there will be multiple stations available for athletes and spectators to refuel. Boys may bring food into SVC, but there will be very little room for food tables and the like.
GATE
$10/day; $25 for the entire weekend.Children 10 and under are free.
TRAINERS
A certified trainer from our sponsor—Children’s Health Care of Atlanta—will be on premises during the competition at GICC. They are happy to tape your ankles, but you must supply your own tape.
PRACTICE/WARM-UP VOLLEYBALLS
Please bring your own; sincemost participating clubs are located within driving distance of the venue, we will not be providing warm-up balls at this event.
Feel free to call or email either of the undersigned with any questions. Feedback is welcome. We hope you enjoy the tournament.
Michael FletcherPhil Teknipp
Southern Volleyball TournamentsSouthern Volleyball Tournaments
c: 404-936-6723c: (440) 413-7911
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