Sale Creek's Gabi Lacheney (44) gets ready to put the ball over the net against Halls Tuesday night in a TSSAA Class 1A state tournament match played at Blackman High School. the lady Tigers from Halls clawed the Lady Panthers in a 3-0 win to eliminate Sale Creek.
photo by Dennis Norwood
MURFREESBORO — Just nine points separated the Sale Creek volleyball team from Halls High School in their elimination game of the Division I-A state championships Tuesday night.
Unfortunately for Coach Erin Hill and her team, they were on the wrong end of those nine points.
Sale Creek was swept 3-0 by the narrowest of margins: 27-25, 25-20, and 25-23. The loss eliminates them from the state playoffs, but Hill hopes that her young team can learn from the experience and come back even stronger next year.
“I think this whole experience was emotionally draining for these girls,” said Hill. “They're young, and the pressure of this whole thing was emotionally stressful, and the two teams we played were very good.”
Sale Creek (26-18), the Region 3-A champs, looked primed to take the first set from the Lady Tigers (30-11). Out-sized, the feisty Lady Panthers used defense and timely play at the net to hold a five-point advantage late in the opening set.
Leading 23-18, Sale Creek gave up six straight points and faced set point. They fought that off, and then failed to convert a set point of their own at 25-24 before ultimately losing the first set.
Although the Lady Tigers never trailed by a large margin — their largest deficit was six points, but they hovered between two to four points behind for most of the match — they could never seize momentum from the taller, more dominant front line of Halls.
“We were just smaller than they were,” Hill said. “We play a defensive game, and we just didn't quite have the offense to handle them.”
Even after the loss, Hill wanted to make sure her team knew just how proud she was of them and how proud they should be of themselves for getting to this point.
“I told them that a lot of teams aren't here right now that wish they were,” said Hill. “That alone should make them proud. We didn't play our best today, but they had a great season regardless. We do have a lot of girls coming back, and next year we will be able to compete at a higher level with these teams.”
HALLS 3, SALE CREEK 0
Halls 27 25 25
Sale Creek 25 20 23
Highlights: SC — Kaci Billingsley 16 a, 4 d; Lillie Morgan 9 k, 6 d; Sarah Gibson 7 k, 4 b; Kayla Phillips 4 k, 3 b, 3 d; Gabi Lacheney 7 k; Sophia Dozier 7 a; Allison Smith 15 d; Ruthie Parks 4 d.