Bishop Moore faces nation’s best

Bishop Moore is ready to meet some of the nation's top volleyball teams.

The national No. 1 Hornets (10-0) flew out Wednesday for Phoenix, Ariz., where they will compete in the prestigious Nike Tournament of Champions on Friday and Saturday.

The TOC is one of the top tournaments in the country. Seven of the top 15 teams in the prepvolleyball.com national rankings are entered.

That includes the top three: No. 1 Bishop Moore, No. 2 Mater Dei of Santa Ana, Calif., and No. 3 Archbishop Mitty of San Jose, Calif.

“We’ve been looking forward to it all season,” Bishop Moore head coach Tanya Jarvis said. “We're excited that the school allowed us to go. This is the first time we've gone out of state since I've been coaching.”

The tournament's 80 teams have been split into 20 pools. Bishop Moore's group includes Las Vegas Bishop Gorman (12-3); Gilbert, Ariz., Mesquite (14-2) and Solana Beach, Calif., Santa Fe Christian (11-1). The Santa Fe team has Prepvolleyball.com’s toprated senior prospect, 6-foot-3 outside hitter Lexi Sun.

“I don't think there's an easy team in our division,” Jarvis said. “We want great matches like our Oviedo match. We want our opponents to push us, like our Lake Highland match and our Lake Mary match.

“Hopefully this tournament will prepare us for the rest of our season.”

Bishop Moore, with seven Division I commits on its roster, has lost only three sets all season. The Hornets will be without middle blocker Claire Meier, who tore her ACL in the Hornets' Sept. 14 win over Oviedo.

“Losing Claire Meier is a big loss for us, but we are working with what we have, and hopefully either Maddie Brown or Lizzi Brown will step into that position,” Jarvis said. “We are feeling the impact of that for sure.”