(Story has been updated)
East Hamilton completed a clean sweep of league foes Friday afternoon by beating Hixson, 3-0, to capture the District 6-2A regular season championship and capturing the No. 1 seed for the tournament that begins Monday at Hixson High School.
The Lady Hurricanes (23-2, 4-0), completing their second straight undefeated regular season, is the defending district champion and beat Hixson for last year’s tourney title and added a Region 3-2A championship by beating the Lady Wildcats a week later.
Hixson will be the No. 2 seed in the tournament.
East Hamilton went on to knock off Upperman in the Sectional and earned a trip to the state tournament where it beat Sullivan South and lost to Portland and Signal Mountain.
So, coach Bojana Hyatt’s squad hopes for the kind of results this season.
Set scores Friday (the match was originally scheduled for Thursday night) were 25-19, 25-9 and 25-20.
Hillary English had a solid performance with 21 assists, two blocks and two digs. McKenna Hayes was credited with three aces, six kills, 5 assists, six blocks and three digs. Madison Hayes had 12 kills, two aces and nine digs.
Hixson (16-17, 4-0), which lost to Signal Mountain in last year's Sectional, was led by Shelby Rector’s 13 digs, Abby Rector’s seven kills and 14 assists by Gabby Tench.
Three matches are scheduled on Monday’s tournament card, starting with No. 3 Central against No. 4 East Ridge. Hixson takes on No. 5 Howard at 5:30 p.m. and East Hamilton awaits the Central-East Ridge winner at 7 p.m.
The championship match is set for Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Statistics
East Hamilton
Hillary English – 21 assists, 2 blocks, 2 digs
Madison Hayes – 2 aces, 12 kills, 9 digs
Raine Phillips – 7 kills, 2 blocks
McKenna Hayes – 3 aces, 6 kills, 5 assists, 6 blocks, 3 digs
Jordan Griffith – 1 kills, 2 blocks
Jala Price – 2 digs
Emma Mitchell – 1 ace, 1 kill, 6 digs, 1 block
Sydney Batten – 2 digs
Allison Giles – 2 kills
Kayla Ford – 4 digs
Hixson
Shelby Rector – 1 ace, 5 kills, 13 digs
Abby Rector – 1 ace, 7 kills, 6 digs
Gabby Tench – 1 ace, 3 kills, 14 assists, 6 digs
Ava Rogers – 1 ace, 2 kills, 1 dig
Riley Bellamy – 2 kills, 1 dig
Annie Zeigler – 1 assist, 6 digs
Blake Burba – 1 assist, 4 digs
Rickell Crutcher – 2 digs
Makenna Seitz – 1 dig
Tournament Schedule
At Hixson High School
(Seed in parenthesis)
Monday
(3) Central vs (4) East Ridge, 4 p.m.
(2) Hixson vs. (5) Howard. 5:30 p.m.
(1) East Hamilton vs. Hixson-Howard winner, 7 p.m.
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)