CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Two-time TSSAA defending state champ Cleveland cruised to its ninth straight District 5-AAA regular season title with its 18th shutout of the season, Tuesday at Raider Arena.
After honoring four on Senior Night the Lady Raiders rolled past visting Walker Valley 25-10, 25-15, 25-20.
Both teams hit the road to wrap up the regular season with district makeup matches Wednesday. Fifth-ranked Cleveland (28-10, 5-0) headed to Rhea County (13-17, 2-2), while Walker Valley (8-17, 2-3) journeyed to McMinn County.
The 5-AAA Tournament will be held on Tuesday at Raider Arena, with the top two teams advancing to the Region 3-AAA event the following week.
Walker Valley led just three times on the evening, including scoring the opening points of the first and second sets, before Cleveland took command.
Although the teams stayed tight to start the match, the Lady Raider broke open a 5-4 edge with an 8-0 run behind the serving of two-time Gatorade Tennessee Player of the Year Lauren Hurst, which included a pair of aces.
The hosts continued to build the advantage through the remainder of the set, keeping the Valley girls from scoring on any of their own serves and taking advantage of 13 Herd miscues.
Hurst drilled a third of her five aces on the night to seal the victory.
Cleveland had half of its dozen aces on the night in the opener.
The second set saw the visitors down three of the first five points, including a "dunk" by Madeline McBrayer for their final lead of the match.
Although the hosts retook the edge with three straight points, including an ace by sophomore Ava Franklin, the set stayed tight until Cleveland broke open a 9-7 advantage with a 4-0 spurt.
Walker Valley answered with three in a row, including an ace by Ella Fairchild, to trim the deficit to 13-10, but that was as close as they'd come.
The Lady Raiders scored 12 of the set's final 17 points with a back row spike from freshman GiGi Williams to cap the win.
Although Cleveland took control from the get-go in the final set, building a 5-1 edge, the Herd rallied to pull within a point.
The Lady Raiders were able to pull away again with a pair of 4-0 spurts and eventually built a 19-10 lead before the visitors took advantage of some unforced errors to battle back to within 23-20.
Cleveland closed out the sweep with back-to-back power slams by junior All-Stater Gunny Brock, giving her nine kills and a couple of aces in the match.
Hurst added 15 kills, bringing her TSSAA career record tally past the 2,500 mark, including 571 on the season. The 6-foot-3 senior also had a couple of blocks and handed out four assists.
Franklin collected 25 helps, giving her 2,095 "dimes" in her first season as the Lady Raider setter. She also had a pair of aces.
Senior Audra Capps posted five kills and a couple of aces in the victory.
Sophomore Karleigh Mann paced Walker Valley with seven assists, a trio of kills and a pair of digs.
Junior libero Caileigh Collins helped out with a dozen digs, while Dunkle slammed home five kills.
Avrie Butcher handed out eight helps, plus McBrayer spiked three kills and blocked a pair of Lady Raider shots.
Fairchild helped out with four kills, two digs and an ace.