OOLTEWAH — In a hard-fought battle to claim the District 6-AAA volleyball crown, the 11th-ranked Lady Hurricanes of East Hamilton settled in after losing the second set and claimed the championship with a 3-1 victory over Bradley Central Tuesday evening, in Ooltewah.
“We are one step closer to the state tournament. I'm very proud of our team,” said Lady 'Canes head coach Antonela Tomic. “We had some adversity and made some adjustments after the set we lost. It was a team effort. I'm very proud of them very, very proud.”
The Lady 'Canes, who were the Class AA state runner-up last fall before moving up to the state's largest division, won set one, 25-18, before falling in the second set by a score of 25-22. From there East Hamilton (28-8) took control of the night scoring 25-16 and 25-13 victories to claim the championship.
“I wish we would have stayed with them in the two sets where we let the errors kind of get the best of us and change our attitude a little bit and and kind of took it with us down the hole,” said Bearettes head coach Christie McElhaney, whose 29th Bearette squad is 16-16 on the campaign.
Both teams will travel to the Raider Dome Monday for the Region 3-AAA Tournament, hosted by defending state champion and second-ranked Cleveland.
The Bearettes will battle their crosstown rivals in the semifinal round, while the Lady 'Canes take on District 5 runner-up Rhea County (11-13) in the other.
The two winners will tangle for the title in the night's finale, with both earning berths to the TSSAA Sectionals, which will be played Thursday at the homes of the region champs. The TSSAA State Championships are set for Oct. 17-20.
The Lady 'Canes reached the district championship match by eliminating The Howard School in straight sets to open the tournament. The Bearettes ousted Ooltewah (16-17) by a 3-1 tally to claim its spot in the title tilt.
The fight was on early in the final matchup as the Bearettes opened a quick 5-1 lead. East Hamilton cut it to 8-7 before Bradley recovered to stay out front 12-9.
The Hurricanes regrouped to score eight of the next 10 points to move ahead 16-13 and pushed the margin to 20-15 minutes later. The led grew to 23-16 before the teams traded the final four points to close out set one.
Set two belonged to the Bearettes as they once again pushed to a 5-1 lead and held an 8-3 advantage after an ace by sophomore Libby Stewart.
East Hamilton fought back to close the gap to 16-15 and tied the set twice before junior Laney Inman's kill made it 23-21. Senior libero Ashlyn Stuman fired an ace over the nylons to give the win to the Bearettes.
The Lady Hurricanes opened the third set with a 6-4 lead and never looked back, jumping to a 16-8 cushion.
Kills by Georgia Dobson, Camryn Daniels and Saylor Clark, along with a pair of aces by Dobson put East Hamilton out front 23-12. Clark gave the Lady 'Canes a 2-1 lead with a final kill to end the set.
In the night's final set, it was East Hamilton who took a 5-1 lead and after breaking a 7-7 tie never looked back as they rolled to a 15-9 advantage and went up 21-11 late in the set.
The Bearettes got kills from Kimora Fields and Inman to cut it to 21-13, but the Lady'Canes picked up the last four points with the final blow coming on an ace by Dobson to seal the win.
“We're going to go back to the gym and keep working, but that's been our season,” said Tomic.
“We're not done. We fought to live another week so that was our goal. Make it to region and we've just got to work from here,” McElHaney said.
“We've got to work on being more consistent and a little more vocal with each other. One mistake happens and we tend to get way too quiet instead of somebody standing up and being vocal and carrying us through it. We've just got to keep on working on that.”
All-District 5-AAA
Tournament Team
Bradley Central — Laney Inman, Kimora Fields, Addison Stuman; East Hamilton — Haua Zuzuki, Trystan Sutton, Julia Culpeper, Camryn Daniels; Ooltewah — Karley Bruner; MVP — Georgia Dobson (EH).
All-District 5-AAA
Regular Season Team
Bradley Central — Ashlyn Stuman, Laney Inman, Kimora Fields; East Hamilton — Georgia Dodson, Saylor Clark, Savannah Hughes, Haua Suzuki; Howard — Eunique Hamilton; Ooltewah — Karley Bruner, Rayna Hullender. MVP — Tristin Sutton (EH).
