Chattanooga teams have had a better than average run this week in Murfreesboro at the state volleyball tournament, but three of them ran into a solid, brick wall on Thursday.
East Hamilton continued its perfect run through the AA bracket with its third win in three days. It wasn’t easy as the Lady Hurricanes had to play five grueling sets with Dyer County before emerging victorious with a 3-2 win.
While East Hamilton was advancing to the finals, it was the end of a successful season for teams from Cleveland, Sale Creek and Signal Mountain.
East Hamilton won the first two sets by scores of 25-23 and 25-23 before the Lady Choctaws evened the score with wins of 25-10 and 25-20 in the next two. Then in a real battle of hearts, the Lady Canes advanced with a 15-12 victory.
With the win, East Hamilton is now 31-5 and will face Hume-Fogg for all the marbles on Friday afternoon at Siegel High School.
It’s been a real ride for coach Antonela Suzuki and her team of Lady Hurricanes and nobody is any more happy or proud than the second-year coach.
“Every great team finds a way to win, but it was tough from start to finish,” she said later after returning to their motel.
“It was a great atmosphere, but like I’ve been saying all week, we feel like we belong and now we get to play for a state championship. We’ve really worked hard to get to this point, but we just had to trust each other and believe in each other.
“The good news is that we’re not a one-player team. We had three girls with double-doubles and that was really important, but we have the ability to score, no matter who has the ball. We just had to find a way in that fifth set, but our seniors really came alive.
“I can’t begin to explain my emotions right now, but we just plan to come back on Friday with the plan of taking care of business,” the coach added.
McKenna Hayes, Amya Sutton and Madison Allen were the three players with double-doubles for East Hamilton as Hayes finished with 17 kills and 15 digs. Sutton had 14 kills and 17 digs while Allen came through with 14 kills and 11 digs.
Chattanooga’s other three teams didn’t have the same success.
Cleveland lost its first match of the tournament when they got swept by Ravenwood, the Lady Raptors winning by scores of 25-17, 25-18 and 25-16. The Lady Blue Raiders then lost 3-1 to Nolensville, a team that Cleveland had beaten on Tuesday, by scores of 25-17, 25-21, 20-25 and 25-19.
"We just didn't execute very well in our first match against Ravenwood, so it went their way," Cleveland coach Amy McGowan said.
"They just got more points than we did, but I'm absolutely pleased with what we did here this week. I don't think anyone expected us to get as far as we did. We struggled in our first match, but showed a lot of heart in the match with Nolensville.
"Nolensville is the two-time defending champ in AA and Ravenwood has played on the big stage before as well. This is our first time to get this far, but I'm totally confident that we can be back next year," she added.
Cleveland \ends its season at 38-13. Meanwhile, the tournament came to a close for Sale Creek and Signal Mountain
Sale Creek got eliminated by South Greene on scores of 25-11, 25-16 and 25-17 while Signal Mountain was eliminated by Hume-Fogg by scores of 25-18, 26-24 and 25-14.
Sale Creek finishes another outstanding season at 30-13. And with just two seniors, the future is bright for coach Erin Briner and her young Lady Panthers.
“I hate to say it, but we just didn’t play very well today,” Briner expressed.
“South Greene was just the better team today, but we’re playing in a spot where many other teams aren’t, so we need to be proud of that. We didn’t play our best, but we had another good year overall. And we’re already hungry for a better turnout next year,” she added.
Signal Mountain coach Kim Rackel was also excited about the current state of her Lady Eagles, who finished their season at 18-18.
“I’m incredibly proud of the way we played and there’s no way for me to be disappointed,” Rackel began.
“We gave absolutely every ounce of effort we had, but our tank just got empty too quick. We played a really good team today, but we just didn’t have enough at the end. This was our best match of the season as we totally left it out on the court, but we did ourselves proud today.
“We’ve improved more in the last three weeks than we have all season, but we were chasing a championship just like everyone else and just came up a little bit short,” she added.
EAST HAMILTON STATS:
McKenna Hayes – 17 kills, 3 blocks, 15 digs, 4 aces
Laila Ankar – 16 digs
Georgia Dobson – 9 kills, 2 blocks, 3 assists, 1 dig, 1 ace
Amya Sutton – 14 kills, 1 assist, 17 digs, 3 aces
Tristin Sutton – 2 kills, 47 assists, 1 ace, 4 digs
Morgan Bone – 2 kills, 3 blocks, 2 digs
Madison Allen – 14 kills, 2 assists, 11 digs.
SALE CREEK STATS:
Hope Ayers – 7 digs, 3 kills, 1 ace, 1 block
Reese Hendrix – 8 digs
Ansley White – 2 digs, 2 assists
Shelby Defore – 2 kills
Kenzie Parks – 6 digs, 3 kills
Karma Jones – 3 digs, 14 assists, 1 ace
Eisa Eilertson – 2 kills
Ava Higgins – 1 dig, 5 kills, 1 block
Enslee Norwood – 3 digs, 5 kills.
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN STATS:
Erica Woodward – 8 digs, 1 ace
Grace Williams – 2 aces, 3 digs
Antoinette Cisto – 8 digs, 1 ace
Addy Jones – 1 block
Janie Kennedy – 4 kills
Carlee Lowry – 9 kills, 5 digs, 9 assists, 1 ace
Dillia Lowry – 3 kills, 2 blocks
Emily Redman – 7 kills, 2 aces, 13 assists, 2 digs
Ellie Werner – 1 kill, 1 block
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)