Signal Mountain unleashed a potent front-line attack on Ooltewah on Thursday and the Lady Eagles blew past the Lady Owls 3-0 in non-district volleyball action at Edward M. Foster Gymnasium.
The set scores were 25-19, 25-22 and 25-15.
Signal Mountain’s Aubrie Johnson, Maia Rackel and Olivia Powers combined for 30 kills and that proved to be a deciding factor in the impressive sweep.
“We’re all pretty tall,” said Johnson, who led the way with 16 kills, four blocks, two digs and two aces. “I’m 6-1, Maia is about 6-2 and Olivia is 6-1, so we have someone who will step up and put the ball down on every rotation.”
The Lady Eagles’ height advantage was never more obvious than in the second set.
Signal Mountain was nursing an 8-5 lead when Johnson, Rackel and Powers accounted for 15 of the final 17 points in a narrow three-point win.
Rackel scored seven of the 15 points with two kills, two service points, one block, one tap and a one-handed push. Johnson contributed three kills, one tap, one block and one service point in the key spree while Powers had a kill.
“We’re all playing pretty good,” said Rackel, who finished with 10 kills, five digs and three aces. “This was a good game for us and it’s going to help a lot in our tournament.”
The Lady Eagles (32-8, 10-0) are heavy favorites to win the District 7-2A tournament, which will be played at Signal Mountain.
“I run three middle hitters, so we have two tall players, sometimes three tall people, on the front row every single time,” Signal Mountain coach Jennifer Redman said. “That’s a nice luxury to have.”
Powers was credited with four kills and one block in the match.
Ooltewah (25-12, 10-2), which will be the No. 2 seed in the District 5-3A tournament next week at Walker Valley High School, didn’t play badly in Thursday’s contest. It’s just that Signal Mountain played better.
“Signal Mountain is a very good team,” said Lady Owls hitter Sidney Killingsworth, who was walking around with an ice pack on her right leg just above the knee. “Signal has a lot of girls that play club volleyball, so they’re more experienced than we are.
“We have a lot of girls that play softball and volleyball and they don’t have a lot of time for club ball. That was some of the difference tonight.”
Said Ooltewah coach Elaine Peigen of her team’s effort, “I was pleased by the way we hung in there with Signal Mountain. The first game was tied several times and one of the things I didn’t like was our serve-reception. We didn’t put a lot of balls in system so we could run our offense better. We’ve got to work on that.
“We didn’t serve aggressively enough in the first set and we were patting the ball around a little too much, but overall I was pleased with our effort.”
In the first set, Signal Mountain had a 23-14 lead, but the Lady Owls went on an 8-1 run to trim their deficit to 24-22. Killingsworth had a well-placed, cross-court tap for a winner and a block against Johnson in the spurt.
An unforced error by Madeline Mills provided the Lady Eagles with their 25th point.
The Lady Owls scored the first four points of Set 1, but Signal Mountain put up the next five. That set the tempo for the set and match.
Over the next few minutes the set was tied 10 different times, the last at 18-18.
An Ooltewah error, a slam winner by Powers and another Lady Owls miscue gave Signal Mountain a 21-18 advantage. Rackel’s slam found the net and the Lady Eagles’ lead was down to 21-19.
Powers followed with a kill, Johnson blocked Killingsworth and added a tap and the Lady Eagles won the set when Ooltewah’s Cheyanne Sales’ kill sailed past the backline.
“Aubrie and Maia are neck-and-neck in kills and Olivia is third,” Redman said. “I can tell other teams become frustrated. They will try to stop Aubrie and then we have Maia and Olivia right there to put it down.”
Signal Mountain jumped out to a 10-3 lead in Set 3, but midway through the Lady Owls had climbed to within 15-13 when Aubbie Collake’s left-handed tap was sandwiched between two Signal Mountain errors.
The Lady Eagles pushed the lead out to 21-13 before Ooltewah scored back-to-back points, the second on a slap by Collake, who had seven kills and three digs in the match.
Johnson then scored on two successive kills, the last off a soft serve return, Sidney Lapinski dropped in a service point and Rackel’s slam ended the set at 25-15.
“I remember (Rackel) when she was like a ninth-grader,” Peigen said, “and she was a raw talent then. She’s become a very good player for them and they’ve got a nice team. I think they’ll go far in the (postseason).”
Shelby Sutton had five kills, one ace, six digs and ½ block for the Lady Owls. Courtney Swafford added 18 digs and one ace and Macy Milliken had two kills, 16 assists, one ace and four digs.
STATISTICS
Signal Mountain
Nicole Terfloth – 1 ace, 16 digs, 2 assists
Aubrie Johnson – 4 blocks, 2 digs, 16 kills, 2 aces
Maia Rackel – 3 aces, 10 kills, 5 digs
Elaine Redman – 7 digs, 1 ace
Sidney Lapinski – 7 digs, 11 assists
Kate Barry – 17 assists, 16 digs, 1 kill
Olivia Powers – 4 kills, 1 block.
Hallie Hunt – 1 dig, 1 ace
Mackenzie Lewis – 2 kills, 1 dig
Cora Hansen– 2 blocks, 1 dig, 1 kill
Ooltewah
Sidney Killingsworth – 5 kills, 3 digs, 3 blocks
Aubbie Collake – 7 kills, 3 digs
Sydney Alleman – 1 dig
Shelby Sutton – 5 kills, 1 ace, 6 digs, .5 blocks
Jadyn Raschke – 10 digs
Courtney Swafford –1 ace, 18 digs
Anna Maria Novelli – 2 kills
Macy Milliken – 2 kills, 16 assists, 1 ace, 4 digs
Cheyanne Sales – 1 dig
Ally Chernak – 1 assist, 2 digs
Mabry Carpenter – 1 kill
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)