It’s been an outstanding season for the CSAS volleyball team as they experienced a lot of firsts, but it ended too soon and they didn’t get the results they were looking for at home Thursday night.
Hosting the North Greene Lady Huskies in the Class A sectional round with a berth in the state tournament at Murfreesboro next week on the line, the Lady Patriots came up just a little bit short.
It was a great match that went five sets where either team could have prevailed, but unforced errors and missed serves came back to haunt CSAS as they lost 3-2.
CSAS had a commanding 13-4 lead in the first set, but the Lady Huskies rallied to win that first one by a 25-22 final. The Lady Patriots won the second and third sets by scores of 25-21 and 25-12 and things were looking good for the girls in blue, but North Greene evened the score with another 25-22 win in the fourth set before prevailing by a 15-11 in the all-important fifth set.
North Greene is now 20-14 and waiting for next week while CSAS finishes a great season at 19-4.
CSAS coach Brandon Lowry has a bunch of young girls on his team and there’s definitely reason for optimism, but that didn’t change the disappointing feeling he had when this one ended.
“We just made too many mistakes and had too many missed serves. That killed our chance of winning,” Lowry began.
“Their front row was swinging and became aggressive at the end while we got passive. We had a great season, but those girls would be the first to tell you that we didn’t play our best match tonight.
“This is the first team in school history to win a region tournament and we had a lot of firsts. We have a lot of talented players coming back, but mental errors and missed serves really hurt,” Lowry added.
North Greene coach Sam Tarlton felt like his girls may have been a bit nervous at the start, but he liked the way they settled in and played winning volleyball.
“That was a good one,” he said before heading to his team’s dressing room following the match.
“Our passing was bad at the start and we were a little jittery in the first set, but we stayed the course and kept battling. I couldn’t be more proud of the way they played.
“Gracie Johnson has been playing big for us all year and she wanted the ball there at the end. She took over the match as she had that look in her eye. We were looking for a quick start in the fifth set and we got it, so that was the difference in this match, but when we pass well, we have the ability to play well.
“But winning on the road really feels good. CSAS had a good crowd, but when we won that first set, we sort of took them out of the match, so the crowd really wasn’t a factor. We all know that volleyball is a game of runs, but we played well when it counted and now we can make plans for Murfreesboro,” he added.
Johnson is a junior who really came on strong in the fifth set with the match on the line. She was credited with 18 kills in the match, but six came in that final set, including the match point.
Four kills by Johnson early in the set gave the visitors an 8-3 lead and the Lady Patriots never really recovered. CSAS got within 10-8, but a service error by the Lady Patriots and a kill by Hailee English doubled the lead and it wasn’t long until the match was over.
Johnson had 18 kills to lead the winners while English was next with 15. Madison Sanders had 10 digs while Kylee Jones had 37 assists and Kylie Keffer 10 blocks.
Elianna Sawyer had 11 kills for the Lady Patriots while Chelsea Chavis had 21 digs and Addison Ruder 26 assists. Graysen Lallier finished the evening with five blocks.
SALE CREEK BEAT East Robertson 3-1 to earn its sixth straight trip to the Big Show.
The Lady Panthers improved to 29-11 with the victory, winning by scores of 25-20, 17-25, 26-24 and 25-17.
Ava Higgins got hurt late in the opening set, but was able to return later in the match. There was cause for concern at that point, but coach Erin Briner was happy that her girls weathered that storm and were able to bounce back to win the final two sets.
“It was a close match, but we had to overcome emotion and obstacles after Ava went down,” Briner said later.
“We started strong and played clean volleyball at the start, but we were a little frazzled when Ava went down and we lost the second one. We were behind in the third set, but were able to come back and win. Then in the fourth, we played more like ourselves.
“We made a lot of mistakes in the second and third sets, but were able to get back on track and win the match,” Briner added.
CSAS STATS:
Michelle Bulls – 5 kills, 4 blocks
Chelsea Chavis – 21 digs
Graysen Lallier – 4 kills, 5 blocks
Ashlin Lowry – 15 digs
Addison Ruder – 26 assists
Elianna Sawyer – 11 kills
Kendall Townsend – 6 kills.
SALE CREEK STATS:
Karma Jones -- 11 digs, 35 assists, 1 ace, 2 kills
Ansley White -- 1 dig, 1 assist
Reese Hendrix -- 13 digs, 2 assists
Chloe Hillian -- 10 digs
Ava Higgins -- 5 kills, 2 digs
Enslee Norwood -- 18 kills, 4 digs
Hope Ayers -- 4 digs, 6 kills, 3 aces
Kenzie Parks -- 8 digs, 13 kills, 5 aces
Shelby Defore -- 1 dig, 2 kills, 3 blocks.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)