East Hamilton and Ooltewah renewed their District 5-3A volleyball rivalry Tuesday with the same old result.
The Lady Owls (2-0) blanked the Lady Hurricanes 3-0 at Ed Foster Gymnasium behind the solid net play of Alex Biro, Hannah Henderson, Sidney Killingsworth and Courtney Swafford and the super setting of Hanna Matthews.
The game scores were 25-21, 25-17 and 25-14.
It was at least the eighth consecutive win for Ooltewah in the series and the fourth 3-0 sweep.
“East Hamilton-Ooltewah is such a huge rivalry that when we play we’re not playing for our record, but for our school,” said Biro, who turned in a solid all-round game with seven kills, four aces and a dig. “It's nice that Ooltewah can keep being Ooltewah. I think it helped that we had a non-district match (Monday) and when we were able to work out some kinks.”
Biro, who has committed to Carson-Newman University, Henderson, Killingsworth and Swafford combined for 27 kills in the impressive win. Henderson and Killingsworth each had eight and Swafford, the smallest player on the court, added five.
Matthews, a Trevecca Nazarene University (Nashville) commitment, turned in a brilliant effort with 30 assists. She also had three kills.
Summer Williams was credited with a team-high 11 digs.
“We didn’t have the nervousness today that we had Monday in our first match (a 3-1 win over Signal Mountain), so mentally we played a lot better, Biro said. “We played more aggressive on Monday, but we had a good mentality against East Hamilton. We knew this was a big game.”
Ooltewah coach Elaine Peigen agreed with Biro that the Lady Owls used Monday’s match to get over opening-day jitters, paving the way for a solid performance against the Lady Hurricanes, who were coming off a win over Boyd-Buchanan.
“I’m glad we played (Monday),” Peigen said. “East Hamilton is a good team and we played well to get the first district win under our belts. Now we can go up to Cleveland and play Thursday.”
East Hamilton coach Kristy Lenoir was not at all pleased with her team’s performance, and didn’t hold back in assessing the match.
“We played bad,” she said. “Overall, we’re young. There were times I had three eighth-graders on the floor, and that’s a big deal. We have a big learning curve dealing with that. Volleyball is a game of serving and passing and if you make a lot of mistakes doing those two things you’re making the rest of it really hard.”
In the first game, the Hurricanes grabbed a 5-4 lead, but the Lady Owls ran off four straight points – the last two a Swafford slam and a Biro ace for an 8-5 advantage.
East Hamilton also led at 14-13 when Henderson’s serve sailed long, but three consecutive points gave the edge back to Ooltewah.
The Lady Hurricanes (1-1) tied the game twice after that and were within 21-20. Henderson’s deft soft shot and an East Hamilton misplay pushed the lead to 23-20 before Lady Hurricanes hitter Emma Lenoir, one of the top players in the district, unleashed one of her patented rocket slams.
East Hamilton’s Hillary English’s serve was long and Lenoir’s punch shot went side-out, giving the opening game to Ooltewah.
Lenoir finished with nine kills and five digs with an ace while Tori Harris came up with eight assists.
Biro recorded five kills in Ooltewah’s first eight points – the last one was off one of Matthews’ 30 assists – to give the Lady Owls an 8-3 lead in the second game.
A Swafford kill put the Lady Owls’ lead at 11-6.
Swafford, a junior who transferred from Beech High School in Hendersonville after the 2014-15 school year had already begun, spent most of last season starting on the junior varsity team and got only minimal time with the varsity.
She was determined to change that this year.
“I worked really hard in practice and she (Peigen) finally gave me a chance,” Swafford said. “Everybody says I’m really small to play volleyball, but I just work harder because everyone else has a height advantage over me.
“I tell people I’m 5-4, but I’m really 5-3. I’ve been told I have a 27-inch vertical leap, but I probably need to re-do that. I haven’t been tested this year.
While holding her own at the net against taller players, Swafford showed her versatility Tuesday by notching six digs.
“She’s a little inexperienced, but we’re working to fix that,” Peigen said of Swafford. “She has great jumping ability and she’s fast defensively. We expect a lot out of her this year.”
The Lady Owls, who missed out on the state tournament in 2014 after appearing in the previous two tourneys in Murfreesboro, built a 12-6 lead, but Alexis Godsey’s serve was long. East Hamilton’s Jillian Myers did the same moments later to start the Lady Owls’ 7-0 run. In fact, the first four points in the streak came off East Hamilton errors.
Henderson had a kill and Summer Williams added a service point and the lead went to 19-7. East Hamilton fought back to within 24-17 and Henderson’s kill gave Ooltewah a 2-0 game lead.
The third game was tight – the biggest lead was Ooltewah’s at 16-10 – and the margin was 17-12 when the Lady Owls put the hammer down.
Swafford’s hard shot and an out-of-bounds try by East Hamilton’s Madison Hayes pushed the margin to 19-12 and Lenoir quickly called a timeout.
Shelby Sutton scored on a kill and Biro scored three straight points on serve – each one had the characteristics of a pitcher’s knuckleball – and Killingsworth added a kill. With Ooltewah up 23-12, Henderson’s serve went long, but Killingsworth ended the match with back-to-back kills.
“I know something about the rivalry,” Swafford said, "and I know some people at East Hamilton, so it’s like a love-hate thing.”
Match Statistics
East Hamilton
Tori Harris – 8 assists, 1 ace; Hillary English – 1 assist, 1 ace; Kayli Jones – 2 kills, 1 ace; Emma Lenoir – 9 kills, 5 digs, 1 assist, 2 aces; Somer Batten – 1 kill, 6 digs, 1 assist; Madison Hayes – 3 kills; Jillian Myers – 4 digs; Morgan Phillips – 1 dig.
Ooltewah
Alex Biro – 7 kills, 4 aces, 1 dig; Hanna Matthews – 3 kills, 30 assists, 2 aces; Alexis Godsey – 2 assists, 4 digs; Hannah Henderson – 8 kills, 1 ace, 7 digs; Courtney Swafford – 5 kills, 6 digs; Sidney Killingsworth – 8 kills, 1 block; Summer Williams – 2 kills, 3 aces 11 digs; Shelby Sutton – 1 kill.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)