The home court advantage can only take a team so far.
The Grace Lady Golden Eagles were at home Tuesday night for the championship match of the Region 3-A volleyball tournament and they clearly had the home-court advantage with a super-spirited student section that made a lot of noise from start to finish.
But it wasn’t enough to carry the Lady Eagles as they won the first set before Sale Creek came back to win the last three. The Lady Panthers are now 38-5 following the 20-25, 25-22, 25-23 and 25-22 victory.
Both of these teams had advanced to the finals with sweeps on Monday and both are really good teams. A capacity crowd knew it would be a battle to the last point and they were right as the Lady Panthers were able to win the big one.
Sale Creek coach Debbie Hill takes her team to many tournaments where they face tougher competition against much larger schools. That experience paid off in a big way Tuesday night.
“That’s the hardest 3-1 win I’ve ever been associated with in volleyball,” said Hill after the All-tournament team had been announced.
“We knew it would be a tough fight all the way and it was. We had to change a few things after that first set, but our front row came through. We knew that Alexandra Smith would get her stuff as she’s a great player, but we just tried to get everyone involved.
“We challenged them after that first set and they responded. We felt like if we could ever get the advantage that Grace would have a tough time coming back, but I’m just so happy we get to host Thursday’s sectional match,” Hill added.
Sale Creek’s match on Thursday has been moved to Hixson Middle School since the Sale Creek gym is getting a new roof. They will get the Region 4 runner-up Red Boiling Springs while Grace will travel to the Region 4 champion Goodpasture, the three-time defending Class A state champs.
It took a little while for the Sale Creek players to get adjusted and to work the early jitters out. Grace was able to take advantage of that in the first set.
The Lady Eagles led most of the way, although the score was tied at 14-14 and 15-15. Smith had five straight service points, including one of her two aces, as Grace regained the advantage at 20-15. The winning point was scored on a Sale Creek serving error, its fifth in the first set.
The second set was a dandy too as the score was tied 11 times, the last time at 22-22. A kill from Abbey Burton gave Sale Creek the lead and they evened things when Grace made a couple of hitting errors at the end.
The third set was equally as close as Grace hung tough most of the way. A kill from Holley Fulgham gave the Golden Eagles their first lead at 19-18 and another kill from Autumn Parrott a minute later stretched the lead to 22-20.
A Grace hitting error made it a one-point score while a kill from Ariana Smith knotted the score at 22-22. A tip from Janow and another kill from Smith gave Sale Creek the 24-22 lead and they took the 2-1 lead in the match when the set ended on a Grace service error.
The fourth set was much like the first three as it was back-and-forth the entire time. The score was tied nine times and there were six lead changes.
A kill from Parrott gave Grace its last lead at 19-18 while Sale Creek regained the advantage at 22-21 on a kill from Smith. Another kill from Sydney Gibson a minute later was critical as it gave the Lady Panthers a two-point lead and the match ended on the next serve when Grace hit its final shot into the net.
“I really don’t know what to say except a bunch of folks stepped up for us tonight,” said Janow, who was voted the tournament MVP after totaling 15 kills, three digs and two blocks in Tuesday’s final.
“We were a little nervous after the first set, but we got more consistent after that and played our kind of volleyball,” she added.
Madysun Steele, a 15-year-old sophomore who played a key role for Sale Creek at the net, finished with six kills, two blocks and a dig. She too was really happy once the match had been decided.
“What an experience. I’m speechless right now as I’ve never been part of anything like this. It was really nervewracking, but we knew we had to play our best and give it our all. I think we did that,” she added.
Grace coach Hillary Waters couldn’t have been more proud of the effort her girls gave. The only way she would have been happier would have been for a different outcome.
“It was a great match in a wonderful atmosphere, but we just came up a little bit short,” she said later.
“I think we let them get in our head and we didn’t play our game. When we get into a flow and do what we’re supposed to do, we’re a pretty good team, but they forced us to play out of system. We lost some of our confidence as the match went on and that hurt, but our season isn’t over yet,” she nodded.
Smith had a great match for Grace in her final appearance at home as she’s headed to MTSU next fall. She finished the evening with 18 kills and 27 digs, but she didn’t have enough help as Sale Creek did a good job of defending her at times and kept her from totally taking over the match.
Parrott had her best match of the season as well with a dozen kills while Maggie Long had 44 digs.
Janow had 15 kills to lead Sale Creek while Smith finished with eight kills, 24 digs and four blocks.
Burton added 15 digs and seven kills while Bailey Nelson finished the evening with 21 assists, nine digs and four aces. Morgan Weatherford was credited with 32 digs while Jayda Perry had 15 assists.
Sydney Gibson is one of those unsung heroes for Sale Creek who was a key player with six blocks.Tayla Willis was another as she totaled
WHILE JANOW was voted the MVP of the tournament, she was joined on the All-Tournament team by teammates Smith, Willis and Weatherford. Grace’s three included Parrott, Smith and Summer Dean.
SALE CREEK STATS:
Ariana Smith – 8 kills, 24 digs, 4 blocks
Abbey Burton – 7 kills, 15 digs
Gracie Janow – 15 kills, 3 digs, 2 blocks
Bailey Nelson – 9 digs, 21 assists, 4 aces
Tayla Willis – 2 kills, 3 digs, 1 assist, 5 blocks
Morgan Weatherford – 32 digs
Avery Cox – 5 digs
Sydney Gibson – 2 kills, 2 digs, 6 blocks
Jayda Perry – 7 digs, 15 assists
Madysun Steele – 6 kills, 1 dig, 2 blocks.
GRACE STATS:
Autumn Parrott – 12 kills, 1 ace, 2 digs
Lexie Mullins – 3 digs
Megan Long – 2 kills, 1 ace, 2 blocks
Summer Dean – 2 kills, 9 digs
Holley Fulgham – 4 kills, 1 dig, 2 blocks
Maggie Long – 1 ace, 44 digs
Alexandra Smith – 18 kills, 2 aces, 27 digs
Julianna Hill – 2 kills, 7 digs
Abby McGaughey – 7 digs.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)