Baylor's Gabby Gray (10) spikes the ball towards St. Benedict's Lauren Hunter during their TSSAA Division II-AA high school volleyball state quarterfinal match Saturday at Baylor School in Chattanooga.The way things began Saturday at Baylor, it looked as though the home team was going to have its way with St. Benedict Academy and coast its way into the TSSAA Division II-AA volleyball state semifinals.
The coasting part didn't happen, but nonetheless the Lady Red Raiders ended up where they wanted to be.
Baylor went from a hot start to holding off a late charge in its quarterfinal and defeated the Lady Eagles 3-1. Set scores were 25-17, 25-11, 21-25, 25-22.
Baylor (40-8) will play Father Ryan at Siegel Middle School in Murfreesboro on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. EDT. Championships will be decided Friday at Siegel High School. Father Ryan beat St. Agnes on Saturday.
"I'm excited for the girls," Sarah Lail, who has coached Baylor to a second- or third-place finish at the state tournament each of the last five years, said of this year's berth. "It's always the goal at the beginning of the year. Now hopefully we can bring one home to Chattanooga."
The Lady Raiders took a 5-1 lead in the opening set and never trailed, although St. Benedict rallied back within 11-10. Baylor scored the first five points in the second set and again never trailed.
But it was the Lady Eagles who got out 4-0 in the third set and never trailed. They also had the largest lead in the fourth set, 15-11, and led as late as 22-21.
But after Baylor tied it, Gabby Gray notched three consecutive kills and ended it.
"Gabby said, 'Give me the ball. I want to win this game,'" Lail said. "I think big-time players show up in big games. The nice thing is the cast we have around her, so people can't focus solely on Gabby."
Perhaps the Lady Eagles would've been better served to concentrate their defensive efforts on Gray, given that she had 32 kills and her next-closest teammate was Jane Wilson with eight.
"They picked up their game and we lost momentum a little bit," Gray said of what happened from the second set to the third. "The fourth set, we knew we had to win that one. We had to win this game to go to state."
Lail also said St. Benedict stepped up its effort in the final two sets. Even though Gray had the big kills total, the later the match got, the harder she had to work for the points she got.
"You just have to think a lot harder about what they're doing over on the other side of the court," Gray said of playing a team with good back-row defense. "We really had to keep our end up. We had some long rallies."
Sarah Sumida led Baylor with 29 assists, and her total of 14 digs was second to libero Lilly Turner's 21. Haven Bethune and Lexy Hellerstedt each contributed seven kills and Bethune also had two blocks, 17 assists and 13 digs. Gray also made 13 digs and led the Lady Raiders with three aces.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.