Healthy Silverdale Takes Down Grace For 5-1A Volleyball Title

Both Teams Advance To Region 3-1A Tourney On Monday

  • Thursday, October 8, 2015
  • Larry Fleming
Grace Baptist's Lexi Horne taps the ball while Silverdale Baptist's Katie Patrick (11) and Caroline Couch (2) figure out their next defensive move at the net. Silverdale beat Grace, 3-0, to win the District 5-1A tournament title on Thursday.
Grace Baptist's Lexi Horne taps the ball while Silverdale Baptist's Katie Patrick (11) and Caroline Couch (2) figure out their next defensive move at the net. Silverdale beat Grace, 3-0, to win the District 5-1A tournament title on Thursday.
photo by Dennis Norwood

With season-long injuries healed and a full contingent of players available, Silverdale Baptist Academy completed a run for the District 5-1A volleyball tournament championship by sweeping Grace Baptist Academy, 3-0, on Thursday.

The game scores were 25-22, 25-20 and 25-18.

The host Lady Seahawks advance to the Region 3-1A tournament on Monday at Sale Creek and will play Lookout Valley. Sale Creek plays Grace in the other game.

Monday’s winners earn a spot in the sectionals and will square off in the region title game on Tuesday.

Sale Creek defeated Lookout Valley, 3-0, for its fifth straight District 6-1A championship on Tuesday.

“We were injury depleted this season and it was a huge lift when all the girls got back on the floor,” Gracie Pierce said following the title match. “We kept playing, but weren’t ourselves until we had all the girls back.”

Thursday marked only the third game Silverdale has gone on the court with its full complement of players and the Lady Seahawks made the most of their health factor in knocking off the Lady Eagles, who, ironically, were playing without their best player – Alexandra Smith, the district’s most valuable player in the regular season.

In fact, Smith missed the district semifinal on Tuesday as well.

“Alexandra is a huge key to what we do,” Grace coach Hillary Waters said. “It was a last-minute thing with her today. We thought she would be able play, but she couldn’t. That took a big piece of the puzzle out for us with her not out there.”

Smith was injured Tuesday while playing in a powderpuff football game at school.

“We’re hoping she will be ready for the region tournament,” Waters said. “It’s still up in the air.”

Silverdale coach Nathan Daugherty can sympathize.

“We’ve played 30-some-odd matches and this was probably the third time we played with a full complement of players,” he said. “It was a huge boost. We just had to piece it together as players started going down.

“Some girls had to step up quick and a lot more was asked of younger players. A lot of those girls have grown up and now that we’re back together we’re that much tougher for it.”

Grace’s entire roster was play-ready throughout the regular season, but Smith’s loss left a big hole to fill, and it proved to be an insurmountable task in the tournament.

The Lady Eagles (16-7) turned to McMasters, who didn’t flinch at taking on more responsibility with her front-row teammate sidelined.

“Claire did a good job for us tonight,” Waters said. “She’s been carrying a big burden this year and she carried even more weight around tonight with Alexandra not able to play. We just needed a little more help around her.

“She was hitting and passing; that was probably her beset hitting in a long time. She was our leader; she encouraged the other players and did a great job.”

McMasters finished with 14 kills, one ace, 16 digs and eight blocks.

As the match played out, Silverdale had more weapons than Grace.

In Game 1, with a 6-3 lead, Silverdale five straight points to push the advantage to 11-3. Two unforced errors by Grace and a left-handed slap from Caroline Couch gave Silverdale a 15-5 lead.

Silverdale was up 17-8, but Grace sliced its deficit to 17-12. The Lady Seahawks built a 21-12 cushion, but Grace scored eight of the next nine points to pull within 22-20.

Back-to-back Grace unforced errors gave Silverdale a 24-20 lead, yet the Lady Eagles kept plugging by scoring the next two points before ending the game when McMasters’ shot caught net and provided the Lady Seahawks with their 25th point.

With the entire roster intact, Silverdale made a statement that it was making up for lost success during the season.

“It took a little bit (of an adjustment) when the players that were hurt returned, but they picked it up pretty quickly,” Daugherty said. “There’s a chemistry there and they all like each other, which helps a whole lot.”

Silverdale nursed an 18-17 lead late in the second game, but got a tip from Falyn Blalock, a Couch kill and well-placed push from Emma Dale and moved closer to the win at 21-17.

Autumn Parrott’s kill moved Grace to within 23-20. Dale’s slap hit the net tape and fell to the floor for the 24th point and Elise Pearson’s tap gave Silverdale the final point and a 2-0 cushion.

Game 3 was tight throughout and Silverdale extended a shaky 18-16 lead to 21-6 on two taps by Katie Patrick and a slap by Couch. With the spread at 23-18, the Lady Seahawks finished off the match with a kill and service point.

“We have a good chemistry with all the girls who were hurt because we’ve played together for so long,” Couch said. “We came back together really fast and had a level of confidence that was very good. We weren’t over confident and we sure weren’t cocky; we had enough to pull us through.”

The next obvious goal for the Lady Seahawks is winning Monday night against Lookout Valley.

“We have to win one game to get to sub-state (sectional),” Daugherty said. “We’d love to host the sub-state game, but there will be good teams in region.

“There were some things we didn’t do well tonight, but we played well enough to win. We got points when we needed points and I’m proud of the girls. I think they know they’re capable of more. We’ll have to bring it on Monday night, but this was huge for us tonight.”

STATISTICS

Grace Baptist

Miriam Horne – 2 aces, 44 digs

Lexi Horne – 2 kills, 20 assists, 2 aces, 5 digs

Claire McMasters – 14 kills, 1 ace, 16 digs, 8 blocks

Josie Fulgham – 2 kills, 2 digs

Summer Dean – 25 digs

Maggie Long – 1 ace, 20 digs

Autumn Parrott –4 kills, 5 blocks

Silverdale Baptist

Not provided

All-District 5-1A Team (Regular Season)

Grace Baptist – Alexandra Smith (MVP), Claire McMasters Alexis Horne, Miriam Horne

Silverdale Baptist – Caroline Couch and Gracie Pierce

Boyd-Buchanan – Asia Kirkman, Sara Embrey, Abbie Sewell

Arts & Sciences – Alexis Hollis, Renee Schebler

(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)

 


Autumn Parrott (4) of Grace gets off a shot while Silverdale's Elise Pearson puts up both hands in an attempt to make a block during the team's District 5-1A tournament championship game on Thursday. The Lady Seahawks' Kayleigh Page (22) watches the action.
Autumn Parrott (4) of Grace gets off a shot while Silverdale's Elise Pearson puts up both hands in an attempt to make a block during the team's District 5-1A tournament championship game on Thursday. The Lady Seahawks' Kayleigh Page (22) watches the action.
photo by Dennis Norwood
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