East Hamilton Punches 5th Straight State Volleyball Ticket

3-1 Win Over Livingston Academy Sends Lady Canes to Murfreesboro

  • Thursday, October 14, 2021
  • James Beach
East Hamilton libero Laila Ankar, center, takes the ball back over the net as teammate Maddie Allen (18) looks on. The Lady canesdefeated Livingston Academy Thursday night in a Class AA sectional win to qualify for next week's state tournament.
East Hamilton libero Laila Ankar, center, takes the ball back over the net as teammate Maddie Allen (18) looks on. The Lady canesdefeated Livingston Academy Thursday night in a Class AA sectional win to qualify for next week's state tournament.
photo by Dennis Norwood

East Hamilton’s ubertalented McKenna Hayes started Thursday’s Class AA Sectional volleyball tournament with a statement so it was only fair for the senior star to get the final word.

 

With match-point looming in the air, Hayes whispered to super sophomore setter Tristin Sutton and when Sutton flipped the set towards the air and Hayes hammered it to the floor, there was little doubt what had been said.

 

“She told me to get her the ball, and of course, I was going to take care of my girl,” Sutton laughed following the Lady Canes 3-1 (25-16, 22-25, 25-21, 25-9) victory over visiting Livingston Academy.

 

Hayes had pounded the matches’ first set into the ground and in between found the floor with 19 other spikes as East Hamilton punched its fifth straight ticket to Murfreesboro and next week’s State Volleyball tournament.

 

  “This one feels good.

We really feel like this is the team to get it done, to make history, and it was important to take care of business tonight. And yeah, I told her to get it to me to put it away. This team is special,” said Hayes, who along with 21 kills had 16 digs and trio of service aces.

 

The Lady Canes started fast and furious, leaving the Lady Wildcats scrambling to get balls back across the net as Hayes and Co. fired away time and again. Hayes had seven kills in the first game and fellow senior Maddie Allen made her presence at the net felt as well.

 

For Allen, it was even sweeter, after cheering from the bench last year at the state while recovering from knee surgery. Hayes also missed significant time with injury, but all of that is in the past.

 

“It was hard, but I’m so excited to be off that bench. This brings me so much joy. We totally believe something big is going to happen,” said Allen, who added 10 kills on the night and eight digs. “When we get down, it just gives us a spark, more firepower.”

 

“Maddie is the missing piece, and that’s why we feel so good about this trip,” Hayes added.

 

The Lady Canes would need all their firepower for this one as Livingston Academy proved quite the pesky group. After getting put on its heels in the first game as East Hamilton raced out to a 7-2 lead and then closed with five of the final six points to claim game one, the Lady Wildcats finally got offensive in the second game.

 

Livingston Academy fell behind 10-7 before reeling off 12 of the next 13 points to push it to 19-11. Allen and Amya Sutton got hot late in the match to pull East Hamilton to within 23-22, but Livingston closed it out with back-to-back miscues by the Lady Canes.

 

“We haven’t been challenged in the last four or five matches so we needed that to see what we were made of. Adversity is good. We’ve had a few tough losses where we couldn’t find our way, but we really believed tonight. Give Livingston Academy credit. They were scrappy and fought to the end,” said head coach Antonela Tomic Suzuki.

 

“That second set we had some serve receive errors and it’s hard to be offensive when that happens. We are an aggressive side-out team and I’m really proud of the way we responded,” the second-year coach added.

 

With Aleah Melton finding her stroke, Livingston seized the momentum of the second set win and jumped to a 20-15, but that’s when East Hamilton reached down deep. Hayes downed a pair of kills, Georgia Dobson knocked one off a block and Tristin Sutton ended it with a perfectly placed shoot in the 25-21 comeback win.

 

  “We’ve just got so many weapons it makes it easy to trust whoever I go to with the set. And they trust me,” said Sutton, who was spectacular, dishing out 43 assists on the night as she fed one big hitter after another.

 

Amya Sutton set the pace in the deciding game with three big kills early on as East Hamilton got out to a 13-5 lead. Laila Ankar served out the final nine points as Dobson recorded three kills and a block before Hayes ended it emphatically.

 

East Hamilton has a pair of fifth place finishes in the state and twice came within a match of playing for the title in the last four trips to Murfreesboro.

 

“This is the team. This is the year,” Hayes said amidst the celebration.

 

It would be hard to argue they are not one of the favorites.

 

STATS

East Hamilton 3-1 over Livingston Academy (25-16, 23-25, 25-21, 25-9)

 

Amya Sutton: 14 kills, 2 blocks, 15 digs

Georgia Dobson: 5 kills, 2 blocks

Lailai Ankar: 16 digs, 3 aces

Maddie Allen: 10 kills, 8 digs, 2 aces

McKenna Hayes: 21 kills, 16 digs, 3 aces

Morgan Bone: 4 kills, 4 blocks

Tristin Sutton: 3 kills, 2 blocks, 43 assists

 

(Contact James Beach at 1134james@gmail.com)

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