Sale Creek Rolls To Another District 5-A Volleyball Title

Lady Panthers Romp Marion Co. For Seventh-Straight Tournament Title

  • Tuesday, October 3, 2017
  • John Hunt

JASPER, Tenn. – Sale Creek may be the smallest schools in Hamilton County, but don’t tell that to members of the Lady Panther volleyball team.

These girls play one of the toughest schedules each year, most of the time against bigger schools with stronger volleyball teams and often with better athletes.  And that’s probably one of the biggest reasons the Lady Panthers have been the most dominant team in District 5-A in recent years.

It took less than an hour for top-seeded Sale Creek to dispense of second-seeded Marion County here at Marion County High School Tuesday night.

The Lady Panthers improved to 34-12 with the three-set sweep of the Lady Warriors, Sale Creek winning by scores of 25-13, 25-8 and 25-9.  And that came after posting a 3-0 sweep of Whitwell in the day’s first semifinal match by scores of 25-8, 25-12 and 25-10.

Meanwhile, Marion County had a real tussle on its hands in the semifinal win over Lookout Valley as the Lady Warriors won a five-set thriller.  Lookout Valley won the first and third sets by scores of 25-22 and 25-13.

Marion responded with a 25-19 win in the second, a 25-21 decision in the fourth and a 15-13 win in the most important set they’ve played all season as it advanced them to the district finals, but more importantly, qualified them for next week’s region tournament for the first time ever.

As well as the Lady Warriors played against Lookout Valley, there was simply no fire left in their bellies as the Lady Panthers pretty much dominated play from start to finish.

It was the seventh straight district tournament title for the Lady Panthers.

“That was sweet,” veteran coach Debbie Hill said before the tournament awards were passed out.

“That’s seven in a row, but who’s counting.  I thought we played well tonight, but we work hard all season preparing for this with lots of big tournaments and facing teams much bigger and better than we are.

“I’m really happy for our six seniors as they’ve been a special group.  But we passed really well tonight and that allowed our hitters to get going.  I also thought we served well.  It’s a real advantage to come in as the top seed, but we tend to relax every now and then.

“But these girls play hard every time out and we do what we have to do to win.  We don’t have a lot of great athletes, but this is just a testament to how hard they’re willing to work,” Hill added.

Marion County had 2-0 leads in both the first two sets, but the Lady Warriors were unable to hold that advantage either time.

Slender Abbey Burton, one of those six seniors, got her team off and running as she had six of her team-high 12 kills in the first set.

The second set was much closer for a few minutes as Sale Creek’s lead was just 8-7 at one point.  Burton had another kill for a 9-7 lead before recording seven straight service points that included three aces as the lead was quickly 16-7.

Morgan Weatherford had five aces at the end as she sealed the deal with eight straight service points with Madysun Steele’s kill clinching the second set.

It was 3-3 in the third set before Avery Cox knocked down five straight points from the service line and it wasn’t long before the match was over and Sale Creek was celebrating another tournament title.

Marion County coach Carol Bailey liked what she saw in the semifinal win against Lookout Valley, but felt like her team simply ran out of gas against a much better Sale Creek team in the finals.

“I think we just ran out of steam, but we gave a good effort and I’m proud of that,” Bailey said later.

“I’m really proud of the hard work we’ve done this year, but Sale Creek is just in a different league from us.  We were emotionally drained from the match with Lookout Valley, but Sale Creek just dominated with their hitting.  We were just tired and couldn’t do anything about it,” she added.

Steele and Burton shared MVP honors for the tournament as Steele had eight kills, seven digs, two aces and two digs.  Burton finished with a dozen kills and 14 digs while offering four aces and a block.

Jayda Perry and Morgan Weatherford also earned All-Tournament honors for Sale Creek as Perry had 32 assists and Weatherford 29 digs in addition to her five aces.

Sarah Durham and Shelby Raulston earned All-Tournament honors for Marion.  Durham had a dozen kills in the match with Lookout Valley and five against Sale Creek while Raulston had six aces and four kills in the first match before finishing with two kills and two digs.

Anna Smith had five blocks against Sale Creek after blocking 15 balls in the earlier match.  And Jenna Carpenter had 10 assists in the championship match after recording 22 in the first match.

Other members of the All-Tournament team included Whitwell’s Cassie Coppinger and Lookout Valley’s Caitlin Pruitt.

SALE CREEK STATS (final match only):

Avery Cox – 1 kill, 10 digs, 3 aces

Sydney Gibson – 1 kill, 3 digs, 3 blocks

Lillie Morgan – 1 kill

Jayda Perry – 1 kill, 3 digs, 32 assists

Allison Smith – 3 digs

Abbey Burton – 12 kills, 14 digs, 4 aces, 1 block

Emilee White – 7 digs

Madysun Steele – 8 kills, 7 digs, 2 aces, 2 blocks

Morgan Weatherford – 29 digs, 5 aces

Gracie Janow – 10 kills, 4 digs, 1 block.

MARION CO. STATS (final match only):

Jenna Carpenter – 10 assists

Sidney Minter – 2 kills, 1 ace, 2 digs

Jessica Ogden – 5 digs

Sarah Durham – 5 kills

Breanna Vinson – 2 digs

Anna Smith – 5 blocks, 3 kills

Shelby Raulston – 2 kills, 2 digs

Savannah Thomas – 4 digs.

SALE CREEK STATS VS. WHITWELL:

Abbey Burton 13 kills, 17 digs, 1 ace
Madysun Steele 11 kills, 8 digs, 7 aces, 2 blocks 
Morgan Weatherford 21 digs, 2 aces
Jayda Perry  digs, 27 assists 
Gracie Janow 6 kills, 2 digs 
Sydney Gibson 6 kills, 2 assists, 1 block
Avery Cox 2 kills, 16 digs, 1 ace
Bailey Nelson 13 assists, 3 aces
Lillie Morgan 4 kills
EmiLee White 3 digs 
Allison Smith 3 digs 
Kristen Sharpe 2 digs, 1 ace

LOOKOUT VALLEY STATS  VS. MARION: 

Caitlin Pruitt 10 kills, 1 ace, 2 blocks, 25 digs
Savannah Rains 9 kills, 4 aces, 2 blocks, 33 digs
Rylee Morton 8 kills, 1 ace, 26 digs
Scarlett Hamrick 5 kills, 5 aces, 19 digs
Josse Reed 5 kills, 2 digs
Haven Haines 1 kill, 4 aces, 37 assist, 6 digs
Cherrish Shown 2 aces, 15 digs
Amber Walliser 1 kill, 5 digs

(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)

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