H.S. VOLLEYBALL: Middleton gets first district win over Madison

Since Class A was created six years ago, Madison and Trinity Christian Academy volleyball have dominated West Tennessee in the classification.

Neither had lost a match in District 15-A play except against each other.

That changed Thursday night as Middleton beat Madison in four sets — 25-19, 20-25, 25-12, 25-18 — for the Lady Tigers first district win over the Lady Mustangs at North Parkway Middle School.

“This win means everything to this program,” Middleton coach Zeke Craft said. “Beat Madison had been our goal. We knew that to get out of the district that we were going to have to beat one of the two teams. Madison had five seniors least year, and we knew that we had a chance this year.”

Middleton (5-1, 1-0) has been a young team through recent years, and those juniors like Jazmine Cosby and Christian Woods are now veterans and ready to make a run.

“This win gives us confidence,” Cosby said. “The last two years we have not been very good, but now we know we can beat them.”

The Lady Tigers have been successful in the early part of the season, and that showed Thursday in the team’s first district match.

A seven-point serving rally by Cosby early put the Lady Tigers up 13-2, and they used that to take the first set.

That good service rally never came in the second set for Middleton. The Lady Tigers sturggled offensively with little attack and miscommunication.

“It is a head game with us some times, and we play inconsistent,” Craft said. “Other than our two main hitters, we are young with freshmen and sophomores. We have to learn to come out and play every game well.”

Madison (0-9, 0-1) used small service rallies and the setting of Allie Pjontek on attack to tie up the match.

But in the final two sets, Middleton used more early service rallies to calm the nerves and finish out the match.

In the third set, a six-point service rally from Polly Dowty put Middleton up 9-4 en route to the 2-1 advantage, and Dowty did it again in the fourth set to lead the team back from a 9-5 deficit to a 12-9 lead.

“We finally got back in there and played as a team,” Cosby said. “We just had to come together. We weren’t playing as a team in that second set. They came back at us, so we had to come back even harder.”

The Lady Tigers excelled serving and attacking but sturggled with some mental mistakes. Middleton had 15 aces led by Dowty with six and Cosby had five.

There were also five hitters with multiple hits for Middleton as Woods led with 11 and Cosby added nine. Middleton setter Megan Leslie finished with 23 assists.

“I told Christian [Woods] and Jazmine [Cosby] that as juniors, this was their time to step up,” Craft said. “Playing without Sydney [Russell], who is our senior leader was tough and put some nerves in us.”

Winning this one on the road for Middleton was key because now the Lady Tigers have two road trips remaining in District 15-A play — TCA and Scotts Hill — as the Lady TIgers try to claim that No. 2 seed for the first time.

Michael Odom, 425-9754