Another year, another title.
Sale Creek just keeps on piling up the trophies.
Coach Debbie Hill’s Lady Panthers swept South Pittsburg in the semifinals and host Lookout Valley in the title game Tuesday night and notched their sixth consecutive District 6-1A tournament championship.
“This is amazing,” said Lady Panther standout senior Ariana Smith, the tournament’s most valuable player who had a combined 30 kills, 28 digs, three aces and two blocked shots in the two matches. “We were pumped up and ready to win tonight. I knew we could do it.”
The top-seeded Lady Panthers (36-5) blitzed South Pittsburg in the first semifinal by scores of 25-6, 25-10 and 25-16.
Frankly, the match wasn’t that close.
In the championship match, Sale Creek rolled past the Lady Yellow Jackets (14-19) with relative ease as well. The scores were 25-6, 25-18 and 25-11.
“The girls have worked hard and they played hard tonight,” Hill said. “They were very confident and that comes from playing 41 matches. They have a lot of good experience in regular season and tournament play. I’m real proud of the time and effort they have put into this.”
Lookout Valley (14-19) whipped Whitwell 3-0 by scores of 25-17, 25-22 and 28-26 in the other semifinal, thus earning a shot at the Lady Panthers a few minutes later.
“Sale Creek is a hard team to play,” Lookout Valley coach Dan Basler said. “They’re great on offense and defense and we were shell-shocked by their serving. They just don’t have any weaknesses.
Sale Creek and Lookout Valley both advance to the Region 3-1A tournament and will be paired with the top two teams in District 5-1A.
“We’re very excited to win the district tournament,” said Gracie Janow, a junior who piled up 28 kills, eight digs and six blocks in the semifinals and final. “We worked hard to get here and we deserved this. We were focused today and played a lot better than we have been.”
In Set 1 against Lookout Valley, Sale Creek methodically worked into a 12-6 lead, but then crushed its opponent with a 13-0 run to close out a 25-6 win. In that spree, junior Morgan Weatherford had six service points.
Smith had two kills, sophomore Madysun Steele started the offensive spurt with a kill, Janow scored on a dink and Lookout Valley tossed in two unforced errors.
Again, the Lady Panthers were nursing a 15-7 lead in Set 2 when they scored nine of the next 12 points to grab a 24-10 advantage and appeared ready to bury the Lady Yellow Jackets.
Suddenly, Lookout Valley found some offense – the Lady Panthers helped with three unforced errors – and climbed to within 24-18.
The set-clinching point came on a Lookout Valley miscue at the net.
“I just try to keep things in play so we can stay in the game,” Weatherford said of her superb serving in the second set. “I’ve been pretty consistent, but I don’t usually jump-serve like I did today.”
Why the change?
“This was a big game in the tournament and I decided to try something different,” Weatherford said. “So, I decided to jump-serve right before the match started.”
While Hill slipped in more and more reserve players in the final set, the Lady Panthers stuck to their pattern of breaking things open with offensive firepower.
Leading 10-9, Sale Creek unleashed an 8-0 run that produced an 18-9 margin. Janow and Smith combined to take care of seven points. The other came on a communication error by the Lady Yellow Jackets, who were led by Tennille Rogers’ five kills and 14 digs in the title match.
“Tennille, a senior, just keeps getting better and better,” said Basler, who had an eighth-grader (Breanna Sexton) and a freshman (Bailey Lee) on the floor at the same time throughout the two matches.
A Sale Creek error stopped the run. Scarlett Hamrick had a service point for Lookout Valley, but Sale Creek scored the final seven points to clinch the match and tournament championship.
Smith had a kill, two service points and an ace in the closing spree.
“They just keep getting better and better,” Hill said of the tournament titles that just keep piling up.
The veteran coach is in her 36th season.
STATISTICS
Sale Creek (versus South Pittsburg)
Ariana Smith – 15 kills, 7 digs, 2 blocks
Bailey Nelson – 1 dig, 25 assists, 8 aces
Gracie Janow – 12 kills, 4 digs, 4 blocks
Morgan Weatherford – 16 digs, 2 aces
Abbey Burton – 6 kills, 5 digs
Madysun Steele – 6 kills, 2 digs, 1 block
Jayda Perry – 1 dig, 9 assists, 2 aces
Karah Carson – 5 digs, 1 ace
EmiLee White – 5digs
Avery Cox – 5 digs, 1 ace
Tayla Wills – 1 kill, 3 digs, 1 block
Sydney Gibson – 1 dig
Sale Creek (vs Lookout Valley)
Ariana Smith – 15 kills, 21 digs, 3 aces
Bailey Nelson – 1 digs, 24 assists
Gracie Janow – 16 kills, 4 digs, 2 blocks
Morgan Weatherford – 26 digs, 6 aces
Abbey Burton – 5 kills, 15 digs
Madysun Steele – 3 kills, 1 block
Tayla Wills – 1 kill, 5 digs, 1 assist, 1 block
Sydney Gibson – 1 dig, 1 block
Lookout Valley (vs Whitwell)
Scarlett Hamrick – 5 aces, 9 kills, 6 digs
Caitlin Pruitt – 3 aces, 9 kills, 1 block, 3 digs
Tennille Rogers – 5 kills, 10 digs
Breanna Sexton – 1 block
Bailey Lee – 7 kills
Raven Smith – 1 ace, 16 assists
Haven Haines – 3 kills, 18 assists, 6 digs
Tessa Croft – 1 kills, 2 digs
Josse Reed – 4 digs
Cherrish Brown – 1 ace, 4 digs
Lillie Tyson – 2 digs
Lookout Valley (vs Sale Creek)
Tennille Rogers – 5 kills, 14 digs
Caitlin Pruitt – 2 aces, 5 kills, 1 assist, 3 digs
Bailey Lee – 2 kills
Raven Smith – 10 assists, 1 dig
Haven Haines – 5 assists
Josse Reed – 11 digs
Cherrish Brown – 2 digs
Lillie Tyson – 2 digs
All-Tournament Team
Sale Creek – Ariana Smith (MVP), Morgan Weatherford, Gracie Janow
Lookout Valley – Tennille Rogers, Caitlin Pruitt
Whitwell – Aly Prestel
South Pittsburg – Victoria Grider
All-District 6-1A Team (Regular Season)
Sale Creek – Ariana Smith, Gracie Janow, Morgan Weatherford, Bailey Nelson
Lookout Valley – Tennille Rogers, Caitlin Pruitt, Raven Smith
Richard Hardy – Savannah Graham, Lilli Morgan
Marion County – Brianna Havner, Lindsey Glass
South Pittsburg – Victoria Grider
Whitwell – Cassie Coppinger
Van Buren County – Lily Fredericks
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)