MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - This week Red Bank has followed a comparable path to the one it took in 2009 in getting to the Class AA high school volleyball state final. Now the Lady Lions are hoping for a comparable result.
Red Bank lost to Page in its second match of the tournament a year ago and did the same thing Wednesday. On Thursday the Lady Lions needed to win three consecutive matches to get back to the championship match, and again that's exactly what they did.
Red Bank won 25-16, 26-28, 25-18, 25-23 over Sullivan East and 25-19, 25-11, 25-17 over South Greene before defeating Goodpasture 25-21, 25-22, 10-25, 25-12 in the losers-bracket final.
Like last season, the Lady Lions earned a rematch against Page in the final today at 5 p.m. EDT at Middle Tennessee State University. Page is 3-1 against them this year.
"It's the same scenario as last year, pretty much," Red Bank coach Christel Brooks said. "I'm sure Page knows. They'll be good and ready."
That's what Red Bank (48-16) was Thursday. Brooks said Bailey Lyness, a senior on last year's team who's now on basketball scholarship at Tennessee Wesleyan College, sent her a text message to be passed on to the players before they played. In summary it read that rewards are much greater when there are obstacles to overcome.
"It was work, definitely," Brooks said.
Red Bank's leaders on the day included Kalyn Helton, who totaled 81 kills and eight aces. Abby Graham had 71 assists, Ansley Helton had 58 digs and Savannah Nelson had 11 blocks.
n Division II-AA: At MTSU, things went about as painstakingly as possible for Baylor in its 3-2 loss to Ensworth in the losers-bracket final.
The Lady Raiders won the first two games 25-17, 25-19 and scored the first four points in the third. However, Ensworth battled back quickly, tying it at 5, and went on and won 25-21.
In the fourth game the Lady Tigers again fell behind early and used a timeout down 10-4. Again they rallied and caught Baylor at 14, and it was close the rest of the way.
Three times the Lady Raiders reached match point, and they held off three game points by Ensworth before succumbing 31-29.
Baylor (31-13) had the largest lead in the fifth game at 11-8 but fell 15-13.
"We were fired up and ready to play; then it got away from us," Baylor coach Sarah Lail said. "A lot of teams would've liked to have gone as far as we did. Our senior leadership was really great. Third in the state is definitely an accomplishment."
Rachel Travis led Baylor in kills with 32. Katelyn Armstrong made 40 digs and Rebecca Schmitt had 45 assists.