Walker Valley Spoils Debut Of New Coach Brian Wood

A lot of volleyball teams will schedule several matches with non-region opponents at the start of the season just to give them a little more experience playing together before the more important matches are played.

That wasn’t the case at East Hamilton on Tuesday evening as the Lady Hurricanes hosted the Walker Valley Lady Mustangs in the season opener for both teams.

It wasn’t exactly the most memorable first match for first-year East Hamilton coach Brian Wood, who had done an outstanding job at Chattanooga Christian before taking the job with the Lady Hurricanes after Kristi Lenoir stepped down after last season.

The Lady Mustangs made themselves right at home as they won the match, 3-1.  Set scores were 25-14, 25-16, 14-25 and 25-18.

Walker Valley got nine straight service points from Carly Buckner at the start of the match to erase a 1-0 East Hamilton lead and send the Lady Mustangs on their way to a win in the first set.

Wood called a timeout when his team trailed 5-1 and again at 18-10,  but it didn’t seem to help much as Julia McGuire’s dominant play at the net allowed the visitors to keep the pressure on.

The second set was much the same as East Hamilton never had the lead.  The score was tied twice early on, but the Lady Mustangs forced their will on the younger and less-experienced Lady Canes and took a commanding lead with another relatively-easy victory in the second set.

It was a totally different story in the third as the Lady Hurricanes scored the first four points and never looked back. 

Perhaps the back-breaker for Walker Valley came midway through when East Hamilton had a 13-5 lead.  Somer Batten recorded an ace and then added six more service points to extend that eight-point lead to 20-5.  The Lady Mustangs didn’t exactly quit playing at that point, but that 15-point lead was simply too much to overcome.

The fourth set was the best of the day as the score was tied nine times before Walker Valley took a 13-11, leading to an East Hamilton timeout.

There was a long discussion between the two referees and it was determined that Walker Valley had made an illegal substitution, which was good for one point.  For some unexplained reason, East Hamilton was awarded another point and the score was tied again at 13-13 when play resumed.

The Lady Mustangs had a better response to the long break than the Lady Canes as they got an ace from Buckner for a 14-13 lead.  The score was tied three more times, but East Hamilton never regained the upper hand as Walker Valley slowly pulled away for the set and the match.

“That was an exciting district match,” said Walker Valley coach Judy Pruett after the final point had been scored.

“I thought we came out ready to play in the first two sets, but I guess we thought it was over in the third as we let up a little bit.  We just wanted to play point for point in that fourth set and we got some energy from that long break.

“I’ll take the blame for the substitution violation and I really don’t understand how it all unfolded, but it fired my girls up and helped us get an important district win.  I try to not get mad in situations like that, but it fired us up and had a positive impact on my team.

“We needed a match like this as we’re going to Knoxville this weekend for the Early Bird Tournament.  I know we’ll see some outstanding competition there,” she added, saying they had another district match at home on Thursday against McMinn County.

East Hamilton’s Wood knows that the season is long and that things will only get better for his team.

“We’re really young, but we’ll get better as the season goes on,” he began.

“I thought we played uptight and that hurt as we’re much better when we’re loose and relaxed.  We played a lot better in that third set, but that long delay in the fourth set made us lose our focus.  But we just have to get better in our passing and our hitting.  And we need to stay focused at critical moments,” he nodded, knowing he has to face an always-tough Ooltewah team on the road Thursday.

Aly Grace Lemons and Hannah Calfee both had a dozen kills to lead the Walker Valley effort up front while Kaley Walker had 18 digs and Kate Essenburg chipped in with 17 assists and a dozen digs.

Madison Hayes and Emma Mitchell both set the pace for East Hamilton up front with seven kills each.  Hayes also had 16 digs while Somer Batten had 15 digs to go with her four aces.

Freshman Hillary English was outstanding with 25 assists in addition to seven digs, two aces, two kills and two blocks.

SALE CREEK IMPROVED  to 2-0 with a 3-0 win over Central on Tuesday, winning by scores of 25-11, 25-16 and 25-19.

Gracie Janow had nine kills to lead the Sale Creek attack while Ariana Smith and Morgan Weatherford both had 19 digs.  Bailey Nelson finished with 20 assists.

WALKER VALLEY STATS:

Hannah Grace Moore – 17 assists, 13 digs, 1 ace

Kaley Walker – 8 kills, 18 digs, 1 ace

Megan Malone – 12 digs

Kate Essenburg – 3 kills, 17 assists, 12 digs, 2 aces

Gaby Burse – 2 digs

Julia McGuire – 7 kills, 3 blocks, 1 assist

Aly Grace Lemons – 12 kills, 5 digs, 1 ace

Carly Buckner – 1 kill, 7 digs, 1 ace

Rylee Lawson – 1 assist

Hannah Calfee – 12 kills, 1 block, 5 digs

Alice Woolson – 3 digs.

EAST HAMILTON STATS:

 Madison Hayes – 7 kills, 16 digs, 1 block, 2 aces

Raine Phillips – 1 kill, 2 blocks

Morgan Ralls – 5 digs

Somer Batten – 4 aces, 2 kills, 15 digs

Jala Price – 2 kills, 12 digs

Sydney Batten – 1 ace, 4 digs

Emma Mitchell – 7 kills, 3 digs

Lillie Hardy – 1 kill

Hillary English – 2 aces, 2 kills, 2 blocks, 7 digs, 25 assists

Jordyn Griffith – 3 kills, 3 digs.

SALE CREEK STATS:

Gracie Janow – 9 kills, 2 digs, 3 aces, 2 blocks

Ariana Smith – 7 kills, 19 digs, 3 aces

Bailey Nelson – 2 digs, 20 assists, 3 aces

Tayla Willis – 6 kills, 12 digs, 2 blocks

Madysun Steele – 5 kills, 1 dig

Morgan Weatherford – 19 digs, 1 ace

Karah Carson – 1 dig, 3 aces

Jayda Perry – 1 kill, 2 digs, 6 assists, 1 ace

Avery Cox – 3 digs

Emilee White – 1 kill, 2 digs

Sydney Gibson – 1 kill, 1 dig.

(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)