Coach Debbie Hill wasn’t very happy with the way her Sale Creek Lady Panther volleyball team began play on Saturday at Hixson Middle School, but the spunky leader was all smiles when the day was over.
The Lady Panthers entered play at the Hixson Invitational unbeaten after two matches. Despite the fact they lost for the first time against Boyd-Buchanan in pool play, they won their pool with a 3-1 record.
Sale Creek then beat Red Bank in one semifinal and then closed the day with a stirring three-set win over the Upperman Bees in the championship match.
The loss was the first of the season for the Bees, who are now 7-1.
There were 10 teams in this year’s tournament.
Upperman won all four matches to win Pool A while Red Bank was second, followed by Hixson, East Ridge and Lookout Valley.
Sale Creek and Grace both had 3-1 records in pool play, but Sale Creek was declared the number-one team after beating the Lady Golden Eagles.
Chattanooga Christian and Boyd-Buchanan both went 2-2 for the day while Notre Dame was 0-4.
Upperman and Sale Creek both breezed to wins in the semifinals as the Bees beat Grace by scores of 25-23 and 25-9 while Sale Creek beat Red Bank by scores of 25-21 and 25-18.
Sale Creek’s 2-1 victory in the final match came by scores of 23-25, 25-12 and 15-13.
“I’m not sure we were ready to play when we started this morning, but we started playing better after I pitched one of my little fits,” said Hill once the last point had been scored.
“We weren’t executing like we should, but we picked it up in the match against Grace and played better after that. Consistency has been our weak spot this year, but our passing was good.
“I didn’t think we played that bad in the first set against Upperman as we really should have won it, but we were a little more driven to win in the second and third. They started hitting our weak spot in the third set, but our passing took over and saved the day,” Hill nodded.
Upperman coach Wayne Lewis was quick to offer praise to Sale Creek.
“We’ve played a lot of triple A schools so far and I’m not sure we’ve faced a team any better than Sale Creek. I’m not sure they expected us to win that first set, but they really showed us what they were made of in the second set,” Lewis explained.
“They just outplayed us all around as they were just too good, but we got a lot of good experience here today and we have nothing to be ashamed of. We didn’t play as well as we would have liked in that last match, but Sale Creek had a lot to do with that,” he added.
Sale Creek had a 21-18 lead in the first set before Lewis called a timeout. The Bees responded immediately as Emily Moss had three straight kills following a Sale Creek hitting error to give her team a 23-21 lead and they claimed that first set a minute later behind a kill from Taylor Maxwell.
The Bees scored the first two points of the second set before Ariana Smith got the first point on a kill. The talented senior then stepped to the service line for Sale Creek and promptly reeled off 10 straight points, including two aces, for an 11-2 lead and the Bees never responded.
A block from Addie Adams got Upperman within 21-12 but Sale Creek evened the score with four straight points to claim the second set.
The third set may have been the best of all as the score was tied seven times before a kill from Gracie Janow and an ace by Janow gave Sale Creek an 11-9 lead to force another Upperman timeout.
An ace from Loren Alcorn knotted the score one last time at 13-13 before the Lady Panthers finished the match with a kill from Sydney Gibson and a hitting error by the Bees for the final point.
Smith was the leader for Sale Creek with nine kills and 23 digs while Bailey Nelson had 29 assists and Morgan Weatherford 24 digs.
The Bees didn’t keep stats for that final match, so there were none to report.
SALE CREEK STATS (final match only):
Karah Carson – 1 dig, 1 ace
Ariana Smith – 9 kills 23 digs, 1 assist, 2 aces
Gracie Janow – 10 kills, 5 digs, 2 aces, 2 blocks
Bailey Nelson – 2 kills, 8 digs, 29 assists, 4 aces
Tayla Willis – 5 kills, 9 digs, 1 ace, 1 block
Morgan Weatherford – 24 digs
Avery Cox – 1 kill, 5 digs
Sydney Gibson – 3 kills, 3 digs, 1 assist, 2 blocks
Madysun Steele – 6 kills, 2 digs, 1 block.
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN STATS (combined for 4 matches):
Cassie Curry – 35 kills, 3 assists, 27 digs, 5 aces, 1 block
A.J. Johnson – 23 kills, 11 digs, 2 blocks, 1 assist
Anna Linkous – 22 digs, 2 assists, 1 ace
Rachel Kay – 35 assists, 4 aces, 2 kills, 2 digs
Bailey Lancaster – 37 assists, 5 aces, 4 digs
Grace Logterman – 15 kills, 6 aces, 11 blocks
Annika Fischer – 5 kills, 1 block
Brieanna Hemphill – 12 kills, 2 blocks
Jenny Armao – 12 kills, 1 dig
Mayce Moore – 6 digs
Allison Hughes – 2 digs.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)