Cleveland has made itself comfortable atop the District 5-3A volleyball standings the past two seasons.
The Lady Blue Raiders captured the regular-season title last year with an 11-1 record and claimed district and region tournament titles, won a sectional game and appeared in the team’s first TSSAA state tournament.
It appears coach Trish Flowers’ team wants more of the same in 2017.
Cleveland finished off a regular-season sweep of league foes Tuesday night by beating Ooltewah 3-0 and spoiling the Lady Owls’ Senior Night festivities that caused the varsity match to start 47 minutes late at Edward M.
Foster Gymnasium.
Set scores were 25-21, 25-20 and 28-26.
The match was every bit that close.
“Winning this again feels pretty good,” Cleveland’s Emma Flowers said. “We’ve had to work really hard and it’s time for everyone to buy in because it’s about to get real at tournament time.”
The Lady Raiders (22-12, 8-0) play at East Hamilton on Thursday and then participate in the Middle Tennessee Classic in Cool Springs, Tennessee, on Friday and Saturday. The district tournament will be played Monday and Tuesday at Bradley Central High School.
“Right now we can’t worry about anything beyond the tournament,” Cleveland coach Trish Flowers said. “I think we’ve pushed the girls to the limit and my team plays better with positive reinforcement, so we’re trying to back off a little bit. We have struggled in the mental department this season and we’ve got to do better with that.”
Cleveland swept all four district opponents – Walker Valley, Ooltewah, McMinn County and Bradley Central – and went to five sets only once against the Lady Mustangs.
Walker Valley will be the tournament’s second seed and Ooltewah comes in at No. 3.
“This is the first time in a long time we’ve been number three,” Ooltewah coach Elaine Peigen said. “But that’s OK. We hope that our experience over the entire season will start to pay off and we’ll do better. We’ve progressively gotten better this season.”
Ooltewah (18-14, 4-4) will wind up its regular season on Thursday, hosting Soddy-Daisy in a Pink Out game. Peigen’s daughter, Libby, coaches the Lady Trojans.
“She beat us in the first game, so we’ll have to beat here this time,” Elaine Peigen said.
The Lady Raiders, who lost to Siegel, beat Ravenwood and was eliminated by Farragut the next day in last year’s state tournament, used runs in each set of Tuesday’s matchup against the Lady Owls, who were led by senior Macy Milliken's 11 kills, 12 assists and eight digs.
Cleveland trailed 11-3 in the opening set, but went on a 16-1 spree to grab a 19-12 advantage. The Lady Raiders were up 21-13 before the Lady Owns scored five straight points. Cleveland scored the next three points, two coming off unforced errors by Ooltewah.
“We seem to get into ruts and make mistake after mistake and that’s when we fall behind,” Peigen said. “We still have faith in the girls and believe we’re going to beat some people in the postseason.”
The Lady Owls trimmed their deficit to 24-21 on two Cleveland errors and a Cheyanne Sales block. Emma Flowers’ kill – one of 16 by the senior standout -- clinched the first set. Flowers also had 15 digs.
In Set 2, Ooltewah built a 13-10 lead, thanks in part to three unforced errors by Cleveland, but the Lady Raiders ran off six straight points and 10 of 13 for a 20-16 margin.
The scoring went back and forth until Anna Renshaw closed it out with a well-placed tap at the net.
“I’d like to give a shoutout to Anna (three aces, nine digs, six kills and 24 assists) because she played a really good match,” coach Flowers said. “Emma had a good hitting game and it helps us having the big hitter on our side of the net. Their middle hitter (Sales) did really well tonight, too.”
Cleveland’s Lily Oliver finished with six kills and Nicole Glaser and Sophia Lakatosh each had five.
Ooltewah saved its best play for the third set.
After trailing 15-9, the Lady Owls put up six straight points – Ariel Reid’s ace and five unforced errors by the Lady Raiders – to tie the set. The Lady Raiders went ahead on Renshaw’s tip, but Ooltewah answered with five straight points and had a 20-16 lead.
Flowers’ kill provided the Lady Raiders with a 22-21 lead, but an unforced error leveled the score at 22-all. Lakatosh scored and then sent a slap shot into the net and the teams were even at 23-23.
Sakari Pack, one of the seniors honored before the match, slapped a shot to the net, but Maci Milliken’s kill and Audrey Jennings’ block against Glaser pushed the Lady Owls ahead 25-24.
An Ooltewah error tied the score and Ally Chernak’s kill gave the Lady Owls a 26-25 lead, one point shy of sending the match to a fourth set.
Cleveland had other ideas.
Oliver scored on a tip, Joy Douglass added a winning slap and Flowers’ kill ended the hard-fought match.
“These players love each other, but they don’t always like each other,” coach Flowers said. “It’s because they’re all good friends. The LMU coach told Emma we truly are a family because we don’t always get along, but they seem to leave everything on the court.”
STATISTICS
Cleveland
Anna Renshaw – 3 aces, 9 digs, 6 kills, 24 assists
Elliott Brock – 1 dig
Emma Flowers – 1 block, 15 digs, 16 kills, 2 assists
Hannah Longley – 7 digs, 2 assists
Joy Douglass – 2 kills, 3 digs
Katie McGinnis – 1 dig
Kenli Young – 1 ace, 4 digs
Lily Oliver – 3 digs, 6 kills
Lydia Martin – 8 digs
Madeline Dasher – 1 dig
Nicole Glaser – 1 dig, 5 kills
Sophia Lakatosh – 2 aces, 2 digs, 5 kills
Ooltewah
Mabry Carpenter – 28 digs, 3 aces
Tyler Sullivan – 3 kils, 2 digs
Ally Chernak – 6 kills, 12 assists, 9 digs
Macy Milliken -- 11 kills, 12 assists, 8 digs
Audrey Jennings – 4 kills, 2 blocks
Sakari Pack – 3 kills, 1 assist, 2 digs
Madalyn Mills – 12 digs, 2 aces
Ariel Reid – 16 digs, 3 aces
Cheyanne Sales – 8 kills, 1 block, 3 digs
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)