Upperman’s volleyball season ended Thursday, Oct. 22, in the consolation bracket of the TSSAA Division I Class AA state tournament in Murfreesboro. Before that, the Baxter school did something TSSAA’s records had not shown since 2018: it won a match at state, sweeping Elizabethton 3-0 in the quarterfinals.
Upperman then lost 3-0 to Valor College Prep, the eventual champion, and 3-1 to Signal Mountain. It went 1-2 at the tournament after arriving with the 31-6 record listed on TSSAA’s Class AA bracket.
Three matches in three days at Blackman High
All three of Upperman’s matches were played at Blackman High School. Here is how the week unfolded, using the times and scores TSSAA posted. Set scores are listed with the match winner’s score first.
- Tuesday, Oct. 20, 12 p.m. (quarterfinal, Match 2): Upperman 3, Elizabethton 0, by scores of 25-14, 25-17 and 25-20. Elizabethton came in at 20-12.
- Wednesday, Oct. 21, 9:30 a.m. (semifinal, Match 5): Valor College Prep 3, Upperman 0, by 25-15, 25-15 and 25-9. Valor had entered the tournament at 42-5.
- Thursday, Oct. 22, 12 p.m. (consolation bracket, Match 10): Signal Mountain 3, Upperman 1. Signal Mountain won the first two sets 26-24 and 25-21, Upperman took the third 25-22, and Signal Mountain closed it 25-16.
- Friday, Oct. 23, 1 p.m. (final, Match 11, at MTSU): Valor College Prep 3, Dyer Co. 0, by 25-14, 25-15 and 25-20.
Valor did not drop a set in its three matches. The title was its second straight in Class AA; TSSAA’s 2025 bracket also lists Valor as state champion after a final against Dyer Co.
Signal Mountain’s win over Upperman sent it to the third-place match later that Thursday, where Hume-Fogg beat it 3-0.
Four trips to state, and where each one stopped
TSSAA’s history page for Upperman lists four state volleyball appearances: 2018, 2023, 2025 and 2026. The records below are the ones shown beside Upperman’s name on each year’s bracket.
| Year | Record entering state | State results |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 36-3 | W 3-2 Chester Co.; L 0-3 Portland; L 1-3 Camden |
| 2023 | 24-9 | L 0-3 Signal Mountain; L 2-3 Crockett Co. |
| 2025 | 29-8 | L 0-3 Dyer Co.; L 1-3 Chuckey-Doak |
| 2026 | 31-6 | W 3-0 Elizabethton; L 0-3 Valor College Prep; L 1-3 Signal Mountain |
The 2026 trip was Upperman’s third in four seasons. Its two state-tournament wins came eight years apart, and they looked different: the 2018 win over Chester Co. went the full five sets, while the Elizabethton match was over in three.
Signal Mountain is the only opponent that appears twice on the list. It swept Upperman in the 2023 opener and ended Upperman’s 2026 run.
Was it Upperman’s first semifinal? The brackets can’t settle it
TSSAA’s 2026 bracket places the Valor match in a column headed “Semifinals.” The 2025 and 2026 brackets use the same layout: quarterfinals, semifinals and a championship match, with the semifinal losers moving to a consolation bracket that decides third place. A semifinal loss ends a team’s title chances.
The 2018 and 2023 brackets on TSSAA’s site carry no round names, and they worked differently. A team could lose a match and still play for the title. In 2023, Valor College Prep lost its second match and still reached the final.
That matters for Upperman’s history. On the 2018 bracket, Upperman won its opener, then lost its next match to Portland, which won the tournament’s final game. Like the 2026 Valor match, that one paired two first-round winners. It was not labeled a semifinal, though, so TSSAA’s pages alone cannot show whether 2026 was the program’s first semifinal.
What the records do show is the total. After the 2026 tournament, Upperman’s all-time state volleyball record stands at 2-8 across four appearances.
Top image: Illustrative image: the front of Upperman High School in Baxter, photographed in 2009 (file photo, not from the tournament). Photo: JarvisA10, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
