MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Tears flowed like spill waters through the Chickamauga Dam locks.
Players sobbed.
Mothers cried.
Grandmothers, as well.
It was a tough ending to Boyd-Buchanan’s volleyball season.
The Lady Bucs (33-16) fell to South Greene, 3-2, at Blackman High School and was eliminated from the TSSAA Class A state tournament on Thursday.
The set scores were 25-11, 21-25, 22-25, 25-15 and 15-12.
South Greene moved turned right around to play Summertown in another third round elimination game.
Boyd-Buchanan turned east and headed home.
“This is really hard to take,” junior hitter Asia Kirkman said. “I feel bad for the seniors. We all wanted to go much farther in the tournament.”
Jittery from the start, the Lady Bucs, in the school’s seventh state tournament appearance, could not overcome an avalanche of unforced errors and quickly lost the first set.
“We definitely were nervous from the get-go of the tournament,” Lady Bucs coach Alfie Dodd said. “We tried to lift ourselves up, but there were always one or two things that took us down. When your adrenaline is up and you’re nervous, you have no body control.”
After the first-set debacle, Boyd-Buchanan righted the ship and won the next two sets and played with much more confidence.
Only trouble was, South Greene (38-6) never lost its confidence.
The Lady Rebels stormed back to win the fourth set and force a fifth.
Boyd-Buchanan trailed for most of the finale, but pulled to within 13-12 when the Lady Rebels had an unforced error at the net.
South Greene’s Makenzie Schmaltz ripped a kill for a 14-12 lead.
And when Kirkman flicked a soft return shot into the net, the Lady Bucs’ fate was sealed.
Boyd-Buchanan’s disastrous start simply fueled South Greene’s optimism.
Nine of the Lady Bucs’ 11 first-set miscues helped the Lady Rebels build a comfortable 20-7 advantage.
Boyd-Buchanan had a 5-4 lead when the downfall began. Five consecutive unforced errors triggered a 10-0 run and the Lady Rebels were off and running. Finishing off the first set was no problem – Schmaltz and Taylor Lamb uncorked back-to-back kills to end it.
The Lady Bucs, however, found some grit and captured the next two sets.
In the second, Boyd-Buchanan cut down on the miscues and rode the hot hands of Kirkman, Sarah Emrey and Kristen Reynolds to 19-15 lead. South Greene’s play became somewhat erratic and the Lady Bucs’ margin was 22-17 following a Lady Rebels mistake at the net.
Emrey’s kill gave the Lady Bucs a 23-20 lead, but Reynolds’ shot missed its mark and the cushion was down to two points.
Reynolds had 13 digs, seven kills, 14 assists and three aces in the match.
Reynolds’ two-handed push shot was a winner and South Greene’s Peyton Williams’s kill sailed long to give Boyd-Buchanan the equalizing set.
The Lady Bucs’ lead in the third was 16-15 when Kirkman scored on a kill and Katie Delay, who had a whopping 56 digs in the match, added a service point for an 18-15 lead.
Up 22-21, Kirkman, who finished with 16 kills, 16 digs and four aces, had a service point and Abbie Sewell blocked Lamb’s kill for a 24-21 spread. South Greene scored on Schmaltz’s block, but Reynolds’ push shot capped the win.
South Greene roared to a quick 13-2 lead in the fourth. The Lady Bucs managed to climb back in at 19-15, but the Lady Rebels scored the final three points down the stretch to even the match at 2-2.
Boyd-Buchanan grabbed the early lead in set five, but South Greene went up 4-3 and never relinquished the lead.
Reynold’s slap shot pulled the Lady Bucs within 11-10, but South Greene moved closer to the win at 13-11 after Kirkman netted a kill.
Schmaltz recorded a kill for the 14th point and Kirkman’s netter ended the match.
“I don’t think the state tournament will define our season,” Dodd said. “We played better teams and played them tougher during the season. The difficult thing for us was to carry that kind of momentum into the state tournament.”
STATISTICS
Boyd-Buchanan
Madison Balthrop – 4 digs, 2 kills, 2 aces
Abbie Sewell – 1 dig, 1 kill, 2.5 blocks
Sarah Emrey – 13 digs, 7 kills, 1 ace, 3.5 blocks
Katie Delay – 56 digs, 2 assists, 2 aces
Asia Kirkman – 16 digs, 16 kills, 4 aces
Kristen Reynolds – 13 digs, 7 kills, 14 assists, 3 aces
Allie Ray – .5 blocks
Erin Syring – 6 digs, 4 kills, 2.5 blocks
Halie Williamson – 10 digs, 17 assists
Sarah Keller – 8 digs
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)