MS athletics recaps for August 28 through September 2

Seventh- and eighth-grade volleyball traveled to and swept St. Cecilia, while the sixth-grade volleyball team topped Battle Ground Academy at home in Sperling Gym. Many Middle School harriers earned personal records during the Harpeth Valley Athletic Conference's second cross country meet. The mountain biking team rode through the heat on the Chickasaw Trace trails. The boys and girls tennis team also continued their winning streaks. Read on for details on how the Tigers fared over the last week.
Volleyball - 6th

The 6th grade Tigers had their first home volleyball game last Friday and they had the opportunity to play in Sperling while the other teams were at away games. It was a daunting task playing in the bigger gym and there were plenty of nerves, but the Tigers found the patience and mental toughness to weather the storm and they came out on top with a hard fought win in three sets.

In the first set, the Tigers had a strong hold on the game's momentum. Plenty of three touch possessions, kills from Tennyson James '33 and Juliette Long '33 and a serving clinic from Isabel Nadler '33 who racked up five aces to give the Tigers a strong lead! However, it was a tough serve received at the end of the match, along with some badly timed errors, that gave BGA the win, 21-25.

Not to be disheartened, the Tigers released the mistake and tension from the first set, reset their mentality, and refocused on the task at hand. As a team they came together and had awesome passes, which provided Quinn VandeWater '33 great opportunities for amazing sets, and then Tennyson James '33 with opportunities to earn five kills! To help the team keep a strong lead Zoë Mathis '33 came in clutch and added three more aces, along with Juliette Long '33, who added five of her own aces! It was a complete set with rallies, defensive plays, great kills, and fun cheers, and a Tigers "W" in the second set: 25-15. Now it's a match! 

It came down to the final third set. The Tigers focused on staying chill, being patient, and working one possession at a time. And it was the cooler heads that prevailed. Tennyson James '33 was hot all game from the middle, and the team understood the assignment and kept feeding her the ball! Between the team's strong defense and solid passes, Quinn VandeWater '33 kept finding Tennyson James '33, who added three more kills on her already amazing night and three aces. As a cherry on top Juliette Long '33 added an ace that took almost all of the wind out of BGA's sails. 

Now that the young Tigers see what they can do, it's a matter of time before things start to click more consistently! The team and coaching staff have found a pace, a mentality, and identity that they can keep coming back to and it's going to be exciting to see them be chill, patient, and focused possession to possession, set to set, and match to match. Way to get the first win of the season, great job! Keep it up Tigers!

Later in the week, the 6th grade B team lost in a tough match against Grace Christian Academy.

In the first set, the Tigers struggled to find their rhythm, allowing GCA to capitalize on their errors. While the Tigers had some amazing defensive plays and kept the rallies going, it was their service errors that stilted their momentum. GCA won the set 14-25.

In the second set, the Tigers were more consistent. Vivi Rivera '33 and Beste Erdemir '33 each had three aces, and Anisha Shimpi '33, Lola Lentz '33, and June Bird '33 each added one ace! GCA was making more service errors and struggled passing the Tiger's serves, so the Tigers just had to finish strong! However, some late set miscommunication put GCA back in the lead at 24-23. Jane Doyle '33 in a pressure filled moment earned her first ace of the game, tying the score 24-24! It was electric! Unfortunately the Tigers lost their serve and shanked in serve receive, which gave GCA the second set win.

It was a disappointing loss, but it was a valuable learning lesson for the young team about how to prepare mentally before a game and how to claw their way back into a game when down. As we emphasize the challenges and the many micro decisions that come with trying to compete and win games, it's clear this team has heart and love for this fun game. We hope to continue to foster the fun and love as they face the challenges head-on and grow from these tough experiences. Shake it off Tigers, you got it next time!

Volleyball - ⅞
Wednesday night, the Tigers traveled to St. Cecilia to play JV and Varsity matches against the Scarabs. The Tigers came home with a clean sweep! JV took the first set 25-18 and the second set 25-8, winning the match 2-0. Similarly, Varsity won their first set 25-13 and the second set 25-14, winning the match 2-0. Practice has clearly been paying off for the Tigers, making them more competitive and skilled players in all of their matches. Way to go!






Cross Country 

HVAC Meet #2
SCORES-
Girls 2 Mile:
1. HH 50
2. Ensworth 63
3. Lipscomb 98
4. USN 126
5. GCA 135
6. CPA 222

Boys 2 Mile:
1. MBA 41
2. USN 47
3. Lipscomb 93
4. Ensworth 153
5. CPA 171

Boys 1.5 Mile:
1. Ensworth 21
2. USN 53

USN had an almost complete slate of PRs! PRs are not guaranteed, and even small improvements are worth celebrating.
Rory Freiberg tied his PR (14:02). 
Noa Rodrigues and Elliott Karpinos both improved 6 seconds (15:06 & 12:01).
Linus Russell had a 7 second PR (20:24). 
Narayan Chitale dropped 8 seconds (9:45). 
Margaux Soslow took down another 12 seconds (13:37) as did Solomon McKnight (10:43). 
Eva Tanquilut improved 15 seconds (15:03). 
Lucas Roschke had a 17 second PR (15:46). 
James Keiper got another 18 seconds faster (13:07). 
Booker Ammons dropped 19 seconds (13:27).
Hudson Unger got 20 seconds faster (14:04). 
Hugo Miller and Brody Terker both improved 23 seconds (14:02 and 11:20). 
Mitch Calhoun-Hauck got 31 seconds faster (11:38). 
Edith McLean took 50 seconds off of her PR, bringing our top recorded girls 1.5 mile time down to 10:09. 
Ford Hale dropped 53 seconds (11:15). 
Avery Princehorn and Mac Lueken each improved over a minute (15:31 and 12:41)-- the biggest time drops in the 1.5 mile race. 
Hayden Sasser dropped 1:45 (23:54)
Serena Tanner had the biggest improvement in the 2 mile race! (19:23).

We also had first time races and automatic PRs for quite a few athletes! This was the first recorded 2 mile for Dylan Hyatt, Mila Kennedy, Aston Luers, Sadie Magner, Edwin Nelson, Keshav Parikh, Everett Peetz, Hayes Shallenberger, Elaina Yu, and Sari Zagnoev. This was also the first recorded XC races for Max Arkhipov, Cora Dawkins, William Graves, Tommy Horst, JJ Rhodes, and Graham Unger. 

In addition to those PRs, we also had a slate of SBs, or “season-bests,” which is the fastest the runner has raced this season. That was true for Elias Freifeld, Connor Mulron, Win Nelson, and Collins Spangler. 

TEAM SCORES were contributed to by- 
Girls 2 Mile: 126 points (Margaux Soslow- 3rd, Eva Tanquilut- 12th, Noa Rodrigues- 13th, Mila Kennedy- 45th, Serena Tanner- 53rd, Maddy McKnight- 61st, Lucy Wilson- 71st)
Boys 2 Mile: 47 points (Brody Terker-2nd, Elliott Karpinos- 4th, Elias Freifeld- 8th, James Keiper- 16th, Booker Ammons- 17th, Rory Freiberg- 29th, Hugo Miller- 30th).
Girls 1.5 Mile: No score (Edith McLean- 1st, Cora Dawkins- ?, Avery Princehorn- 24th)
Boys 1.5 Mile: 53 points (Narayan Chitale- 1st, Graham Unger [5th]- 6th, Tommy Horst- 14th, Aiden Park- 15th, Ford Hale- 17th, Mitch Calhoun-Hauck- 19th, William Graves- 21st)

Worth pointing out: USN was first across the line in both 1.5 competitions! Congrats to our event winners: Edith McLean and Narayan Chitale!

Mountain Biking

The Tigers kicked off the 2026 mountain bike team season on Sunday at Chickasaw Trace trails in Columbia. 16 cyclists in MS and HS competed across mutiple categories, taking on 1, 2 or 3 laps (4, 8 or 12 miles), with many riders improving lap times by several minutes compared to last year's race on the same course. Based on the new NICA/TICL scoring and placement system, the HS team placed 8th out of 10 for Div. 1 teams, and our MS riders (Sarah Absi, Mateus Byndloss, Julian Schuetz-Sevin and Emmett Cheney) placed 9th out 19 Division 2 teams. Way to go, Tigers! Read all about race snake encounters, cramps and final effort passes in the MTB team's detailed race report, plus view photos, and see full NICA league timing breakdowns for more than 600 racers.

Boys Tennis

Winning 4-1 versus Grace Christian Academy, the Tigers continued their win streak in the HVAC division matches led by the 3 singles Neel Kodali, Teddy Sauer and Gray Ezell.  Gray was down in his match and fought through the heat and got better as the match went on.  The doubles pairing of Lucas Lupu and Caldwell Adams finished off official matches and Alby Murray and Asher Armstrong won the exhibition.

Girls Tennis

Hot, hotter and hottest described the match this week against Grace Christian Academy. Audrey, Ekat, Charlotte, Olivia/Sofia and Vivi/Mae earned our match winning 5 points and Lucy earned some valuable practice in her Exhibition match. Shade breaks, water and snack breaks kept our players cool on game change overs.

We are so proud to say that the Tigers are 2-0 in the division!

The match scheduled against JPII has been rescheduled to the River Campus on September 14th, so head out to cheer on our Tennis Tigers!
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University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.