East Hamilton Roars Back To Beat Camden, 3-1, In Class 2A State Vollleyball Tourney

Catholic Snaps Lady Canes' Long Win Streak, 3-0, With "Kill Machine"

  • Tuesday, October 16, 2018
  • Larry Fleming
East Hamilton's Kristina Michalkova goes up to block a shot by Camden's Abigail Pierce (11) during their Class 2A state volleyball tournament match at Middle Tennessee State University on Tuesday. The Lady Canes rallied to beat the Lady Lions, 3-1, and Michalkova, a junior exchange student from Slovakia, led her team's attack with 17 kills.
East Hamilton's Kristina Michalkova goes up to block a shot by Camden's Abigail Pierce (11) during their Class 2A state volleyball tournament match at Middle Tennessee State University on Tuesday. The Lady Canes rallied to beat the Lady Lions, 3-1, and Michalkova, a junior exchange student from Slovakia, led her team's attack with 17 kills.
photo by Dennis Norwood

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Sleepwalking through a lethargic first set after driving from Chattanooga, East Hamilton awoke and stormed past Camden, 3-1, Tuesday in the first round of the Class 2A state volleyball tournament at Middle Tennessee State University. Scores were 25-9, 22-25, 16-25 and 20-25.

The Lady Canes (29-2), who have won 22 straight matches, advanced to the semifinals where they fell victim to Knoxville Catholic’s awesome power attack, 3-0.

Catholic (25-8) advanced to the winner’s bracket final against Portland.

 East Hamilton dropped into the loser’s bracket and will play the Chester County-Sullivan South winner on Wednesday at 10 a.m. 

Knox Catholic 3, East Hamilton 0: The Lady Fighting Irish smashed the Lady Canes with an avalanche of relentless kills throughout the slugfest that produced winning scores of 31-29, 25-21 and 27-25.

When the smoke cleared and East Hamilton’s long winning streak was history, Catholic had 56 kills in the book and two players – senior Olivia Cunningham recorded 24 and junior Maya Alves 16 – were constant threats to the Lady Canes’ defense.

Most impressive was Catholic’s hitters were getting passes consistently one to two feet from the net and many kills whizzed past the Lady Canes without getting a hand on them.

“Their power was a lot like Hume-Fogg,” Madison Hayes said, referring to the last team to beat East Hamilton prior to Catholic, a string of 22 straight wins. “When the pass is one foot off the net you can do just about anything with the ball. They didn’t have more desire than us, but they were putting the ball where we couldn’t get to it.”

The first set was an epic battle of teams not willing to give an inch to the other. The biggest lead was three by Catholic twice – 13-10 and 17-14.

East Hamilton took a 25-24 lead on a Catholic error. Catholic tied the score. The Lady Canes went up 26-25 on another Lady Irish error. An East Hamilton error and Cunningham’s kill put Catholic up 27-26.

A McKenna Hayes block and Madison Hayes kill produced a 28-27 advantage. Cunningham’s kill and service error netted a 29-28 Catholic lead. Raine Phillips’ dropped a winning tap on a Hillary English assist to tie the set.

English finished with 34 assists to go along with 40 in the win over Camden. English also had 21 digs and Madison Hayes had 22, along with 17 kills.

Cassie Kuerschen drilled a kill that hit the baseline and a final Lady Canes’ error decided the opening set.

“What made the difference was the girls weren’t focused and getting the free ball to where the setter could make good passes,” Hyatt said. “They had the advantage to make the kill off good sets. They’re a pretty good team.”

Catholic trailed the Lady Canes 13-8 after Phillips’ tap, but ran off nine of the next 10 points and Cunningham punished East Hamilton defenders for three kills, a slap, a tap off a soft return and an ace to give the eventual winners a 17-13 advantage.

McKenna Hayes notched a kill and point-scoring block and East Hamilton was within 21-20. An error, Alves ace and Cunningham kill put the Lady Irish on the brink at 24-20. Phillips’ kill closed the gap, but Cunningham’s kill gave the Lady Irish a 2-0 lead.

East Hamilton picked up the pace and rushed to a 7-2 lead in the third set. It didn’t take Catholic long to find the groove that put the Lady Canes in a 2-0 hole.

Trailing 18-15 after Phillips’ kill and Madison Hayes’ ace, Catholic went to work and quickly assumed a 21-19 margin. The Lady Irish lead was 22-20, but the Lady Canes answered with a Kristina Michalkova kill and Madison Hayes’ kill and push for a shaky 23-22 cushion.

Cunningham’s kill tied the score. McKenna Hayes’ kill gave East Hamilton a 24-23 lead. Cunningham’s kill again deadlocked the score and she followed with a go-ahead kill. Madison Hayes answered with her own kill. Cunningham scored on a tap and Rachel Bazzonn served a match-ending ace.

East Hamilton 3, Camden 0: “The first set wasn’t so good,” said Michalkova, an exchange student from Slovakia. “We put everything we had the rest of the way, showed who we are and got the win.

“I feel so great. We were a little down after the first set, but coach (Bojana Hyatt) talked to us and we enjoyed the last three sets.”

Michalkova was superb and turned in her best effort of the season.

“I think so,” said the powerful hitter who had a stat line to match: 17 kills, two aces, three blocks and 14 digs.

“Kristina did her best at everything,” junior hitter Madison Hayes said. “She took us through the last three sets and won really helped win the match for us.”

Camden (31-8) came out on fire and crushed the Lady Canes. The Lady Lions built a 13-2 lead and extended the spread to 21-7. They scored four of the last five points to finish the demolition.

“She took us through the last three sets and won the match for us.”

Hyatt readily agreed that Michalkova turned in a solid effort on the sports’ biggest stage at the state tournament.

“That was her best play,” said the first-year head coach. “She helped the team a lot.”

Hyatt had to take a deep breath before a post-match interview.

“I don’t know how coaches do this a lot of years,” she said. “We were pretty lethargic in the first set, but we came back and it was a matter of getting used to the big gym and getting ourselves together as a team.”

In the opening set, the Lady Canes were within 19-16, but the Lady Lions scored the final six points, three coming on East Hamilton unforced errors.

Then, the District 6-2A and Region 3-2A champions who drubbed Hixson 3-0 for a Sectional win that led to a berth in the state tournament flipped the switch.

Michalkova flipped it.

In an seven-point stretch, she had three kills and a point-scoring block as East Hamilton took a 12-11 lead. Michalkova’s kill later gave the Lady Canes a 21-16 advantage.

Camden surged ahead 22-21 by scoring six of seven points and Michalkova’s serve that sailed long produced the opponent’s 22nd point. She then scored on back-to-back kills and a Camden error gave East Hamilton the three-point win to even the match.

In the third, Camden scored four straight pints to pull to within 11-10, but East Hamilton reeled off six consecutive points and took control at 17-10. Michalkova scored on a kill and tip in that burst, both assisted by English, who basically aided about 90 percent of the Lady Canes’ points. English finished with 40 assists, 18 digs and one ace.

“After losing the first set, we just wanted to beat them more,” English said. “We came over this morning and we just started waking up in the second set. For a while, we didn’t know what was going on.”

The finale was tight from start to finish.

East Hamilton was up 13-12, but the lead started going back and forth for a few minutes. A kill by Camden senior Sarah Bradford produced an 18-15 margin. The Lady Canes tied the score on Michalkova kill and two Lady Lions’ errors.

McKenna Hayes’ kill roared past the sideline boundary, giving Camden a 19-18 lead.

Then, the Lady Canes, who Hyatt said had 97 digs in the match, landed the hammer that clocked the Lady Lions.

They scored seven of the final eight points to cap the thrilling comeback.

English powered the spree with three of her four aces. Michalkova had two more kills. Madison Hayes, who had 13 kills, 22 digs and one ace, slammed her final kill and Emily Pettit’s tap bounced off a Camden player.

The Lady Lions’ only point in the closing spree came off an English net serve.

“I think after the first set we got in their heads and they were done,” Madison Hayes said. “Everyone was down early, but we came back by playing together and got the win.”

East Hamilton Stats vs. Camden

Hillary English – 4 aces, 40 assists, 18 digs

Madison Hayes – 1 ace, 13 kills, 22 digs

Raine Phillips – 1 ace, 5 kills, 3 blocks

Jordyn Griffith – 7 kills, 1 block, 2 digs

McKenna Hayes – 8 kills, 2 aces, 4 blocks, 7 digs

Kayla Ford – 10 digs

Kristina Michalkova – 17 kills, 2 aces, 3 blocks, 14 digs

Sydney Batten – 3 digs

Jala Price – 18 digs

East Hamilton Stats vs. Knox Catholic

Hillary English – 2 kills, 34 assists, 7 blocks, 21 digs

Madison Hayes – 1 ace, 17 kills, 1 block, 22 digs

Raine Phillips – 5 kills, 6 blocks, 1 dig

McKenna Hayes – 7 kills, 1 bloc, 3 digs

Jordyn Griffith – 2 kills, 1 block

Kristina Michalkova – 1 ace, 5 kills, 2 blocks, 12 digs

Kayla Ford – 8 digs

Emily Pettit – 3 assists, 1 dig

Emma Mitchell – 2 kills, 2 aces, 3 digs

(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)


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