The first couple of weeks for the prep volleyball season have been quite the roller coaster ride for the Signal Mountain Lady Eagles as they play great one day and not so great the next. They have been without their best returning player from last year’s state championship team in Carlee Lowry as she continues her recovery from a torn ACL suffered at the end of basketball season, so that has been an issue as well.
But Lowry has been cleared by her doctors to begin playing. It’s amazing the difference her presence on the court makes as the total outlook on life for the Lady Eagles is much more positive when she’s playing.
She didn’t play a whole lot in Signal’s non-region match with the CSAS Patriots Wednesday night, but she did have four service points, including an ace, that made a difference as the Lady Eagles improved to 5-6 with the two-set sweep, Signal Mountain winning by scores of 25-17 and 25-14.
Signal Mountain coach Jennifer Redman is just happy to see her team beginning to turn a corner in the right direction after a somewhat slow start.
“Today was a good day for our volleyball team as we came out strong and played pretty well all across the board,” Redman began.
“Carlee got a little playing time and that was good as her presence on the court totally changes the aura of our entire team. She’s been cleared to play, but we’re going to work her back in slowly with hopes that she will be full strength when the post-season tournament begins.
“I thought our offense was much better today than it was yesterday and our serving was much better as we only had four service errors compared to 18 yesterday. I thought we did a good job of controlling our side of the net and I was glad to see us come out with a little fire. Now we just need to stay on this path,” she nodded.
CSAS coach Brandon Lowry gave a lot of credit to Signal Mountain, but he was also quick to admit that his girls didn’t play very well.
“We just got beat by a really good team as they can really swing it, but we just didn’t play well as we have to pass better. We need to have many fewer unforced errors, but we just didn’t pass well at all and those girls know it better than anyone.
“We have to find the right combination, but we’ll just keep working with that in mind,” he added.
The Lady Patriots got an ace from Cassidy Long on the first serve of the match and she added two more service points for a 3-0 lead, but a kill from Becca Rogers knotted the score at 4-4 for the Lady Eagles before two straight hitting errors gave Signal the lead for the first time at 6-4. CSAS got within a point at 6-5 on a Signal hitting error, but it never got any closer.
Signal’s biggest lead in the first set was nine points at 19-10 following a kill from Elle Ramsey. The Lady Patriots got within four at 20-16 on a kill by Savanna Moore, but the Lady Eagles then scored five of the next six points for a 1-0 lead on back-to-back kills from Rogers.
The second set was tied six times in the early going, but the Lady Patriots were never able to string together anything consistently. An ace by Lowry gave Signal the lead for the last time at 8-7 as Signal’s strength at the net was simply too much.
Rogers had four straight service points, including consecutive aces, as Signal’s lead stretched from 18-11 to 22-11 and it was over shortly afterward as a kill from Sydney Smith ended the match.
Moore had eight kills and Long eight assists to lead the Lady Patriots, now 5-2 with a match at home on Thursday against Polk County next on the docket. Amanda Gardner had five digs while Kaylee Cantrell was credited with two blocks.
Rogers was the leader for Signal as she finished with 10 kills, six digs, three aces and a block. Emma Schleger had 13 digs while Ramsey added 21 assists and eight digs in addition to three aces.
The Lady Eagles will travel to Ooltewah on Thursday where they will face McMinn County and the Lady Owls in a three-way meet.
CSAS STATS:
Amanda Gardner – 5 digs, 3 kills, 1 ace
Savanna Moore – 8 kills, 1 dig, 1 block
Jaliyah Wilkes – 1 assist, 1 kill, 2 digs
Cassidy Long – 8 assists, 4 digs, 1 ace
Kai Viland – 1 dig, 2 blocks, 1 kill
Kaylee Cantrell – 2 kills, 2 digs, 2 blocks
Brynne Burkhart – 1 kill, 4 assists
Aubrey Houston – 2 digs, 1 assist
CeCe Sport – 3 digs, 1 ace
Sadie Ham – 2 kills
Olivia Coleman – 2 digs.
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN STATS:
Emma Schleger – 1 ace, 13 digs
Maddie Shelton – 1 block, 2 kills
Isabella Benton – 1 kill, 3 digs
Sydney Smith – 2 aces, 2 kills, 7 digs
Becca Rogers – 10 kills, 6 digs, 1 block, 3 aces
Kate Gilbert – 1 ace, 7 kills, 2 digs
Elle Ramsey – 21 assists, 8 digs, 3 aces
Kate Lowe – 2 digs
Carlee Lowry – 1 ace
Ari Anthony – 1 dig.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)