Pugh, Smith Lead Sale Creek Past East Ridge, 3-0

Once-Beaten Lady Panthers Win 10th In A Row

  • Tuesday, September 1, 2015
  • Larry Fleming
Sale Creek senior Bailey Pugh (8) makes a diving attempt for a dig Tuesday during the Lady Panthers' 3-0 win over East Ridge. The 5-foot-1-inch Pugh was credited with 20 assists in the victory
Sale Creek senior Bailey Pugh (8) makes a diving attempt for a dig Tuesday during the Lady Panthers' 3-0 win over East Ridge. The 5-foot-1-inch Pugh was credited with 20 assists in the victory
photo by Dennis Norwood

If Sale Creek’s Bailey Pugh and Ariana Smith were a comedy act, Pugh would be Ed McMahan and Smith would play Johnny Carson.

On the court, Pugh sets up Smith, who finishes things with killer punch lines.

That was certainly the case Tuesday at East Ridge High School where the visiting Lady Panthers rolled over the Lady Pioneers, 3-0, with game scores of 25-16, 25-8 and 25-19.

It was Sale Creek’s 10th consecutive win and the Lady Panthers are 12-1 on the season.

Pugh and Smith had their usual solid statistical lines:

A 5-foot-1-inch senior, Pugh had 20 assists, 11 digs and one ace.

Smith, a junior demon at the net, recorded 12 kills, 15 digs and 1 block.

“They’re a great combination,” veteran Sale Creek coach Debbie Hill said. “They’ve been together since they started high school ball. I’ve coached Bailey since she was in the fourth grade and had her earlier than that in camps.

“They are really consistent and have a lot of respect for each other.”

Smith knows exactly where Pugh will set the ball and Pugh is dead-set sure where Smith will be even before she puts the ball up for an easy kill.

They work beautifully together.

“I’m very confident in my setting,” Pugh said. “You have to be to be a good setter. And I’m always confident (Ariana) will finish it off because she’s very good doing that. As a team we depend on her to make everyone else good.”

As an eighth-grader Ariana played up when I was a freshman. We have a really good chemistry and we’re close on and off the court.”

Said Smith of her diminutive on-court colleague, “You have to know where to put the ball and hit it exactly, and that’s really difficult. But Bailey has a lot of confidence she can do that. We have a pretty good setter-hitter connection. We really know each other and she was my first friend when I came to Sale Creek.”

East Ridge (5-6) got off to a quick start in Game 1, but the Lady Panthers found their rhythm and it was more than the Lady Pioneers of coach Kerilyn Mongar could handle.

“We are really trying to play together as a unit,” Mongar said. “We’ve been a good comeback team, but there are times when we lose a point and lose momentum. We come back to tie or take the lead, but we need to do a better job finishing things.”

The Lady Pioneers grabbed a quick 5-1 lead in the first game, but Sale Creek scored 16 of the game’s next 21 points and had a 17-10 advantage after Abbey Burton’s slap shot and a Smith kill down the left sideline and back-to-back unforced errors by East Ridge’s Mya Adams and Michaela Moore.

Sale Creek was up 22-12, but Moore had a kill, Kyhonah Laurence threw in a slap-shot winner, Laurence added a service point and Sale Creek had an unforced error to slice the Lady Panthers’ lead to 22-16.

Three straight East Ridge miscues gave Sale the first game.

The Lady Panthers, whose only loss was a 3-1 decision to Boyd-Buchanan on Aug. 20, got out of the gate quick in Game 2 by building a 12-2 lead. Sale Creek delivered a knockout punch by scoring seven straight points, including two kills by Smith and set up by Pugh, a Lauren Smith kill and one by Gracie Janow to get the streak started.

East Ridge gave up the game’s final point when a serve was netted.

In the finale, East Ridge’s Laurence had a kill to pull the Lady Pioneers to within 9-8, but the Lady Panthers scored six consecutive points – Pugh registered a slap, Taylor Day got two points on serves, Ariana Smith scored on a two-handed push and Day came back with her fourth ace of the match and Sale Creek had a 15-8 lead.

East Ridge rallied to trim its deficit to 22-18 only to see Smith unleash another kill shot. Smith got another opportunity at the net moments later, but hit the ball up against the Catherine Neely Gym wall.

A Lady Pioneer error gave Sale Creek the 24th point and Bailey Nelson’s service point gave the Lady Panthers a 25-19 win and the match.

“Consistency as a team was my big concern starting the season,” Hill said. “Our younger players are more comfortable and we’re playing consistently right now. I’m excited about the rest of the season.

“Sometimes I have to call them to order, but they’re teenagers and like to have a good time. They joke around some, and I do too. But we all need a wake-up call now and then.”

Statistics

Sale Creek

Lauren Smith – 4 kills, 25 digs, 2 aces

Ariana Smith – 12 kills, 15 digs, 1 block

Sydney Poe – 2 kills, 8 digs, 1 assist, 1 block

Gracie Janow – 2 kills, 4 digs, 1 block

Bailey Nelson – 3 digs, 4 assists, 2 aces

Bailey Pugh – 11 digs, 20 assists, 1 ace

Abbey Burton – 8 kills, 5 digs, 3 assists

Tayla Willis – 2 kills

Taylor Day – 14 digs, 1 assist, 4 aces

Karah Carson – 1 dig

East Ridge

Kyhonah Lawrence – 4 kills, 6 assists, 3 blocks, 12 digs

Casiee Jordan – 9 digs

Michaela Moore – 5 blocks

Mya Adams – 5 kills, 4 assists, 1 block

Jai’Oshea Moon – 3 blocks

Kayla Murphy – 2 blocks

Rickell Hill – 22 digs

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

Junior Ariana Smith (7) of Sale Creek powers one of her 12 kills past East Ridge's Kyanna Kendrick (8) in high school volleyball action on Tuesday. The Lady Panthers swept the match by scores of 25-16, 25-8 and 25-19.
Junior Ariana Smith (7) of Sale Creek powers one of her 12 kills past East Ridge's Kyanna Kendrick (8) in high school volleyball action on Tuesday. The Lady Panthers swept the match by scores of 25-16, 25-8 and 25-19.
photo by Dennis Norwood
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