On Monday, the members of Grace Academy's volleyball team for the first time will experience what it's like to have home-court advantage in the Region 3-A tournament. On Thursday, the Lady Golden Eagles experienced what it was like to have home-crowd advantage away from home.
Packed into the bleachers at Boyd-Buchanan behind the bench where Grace sat for the first set against Silverdale Baptist Academy in the District 5 championship match was a Grace student section that got louder as the Lady Golden Eagles' play got better. And when it was over, the Grace players and students celebrated a 3-1 victory on the court together.
Grace (29-9) will host District 6 runner-up Lookout Valley in one region semifinal. District 6 champion will host Silverdale (17-16) in the other. The winners will play Tuesday for the region championship.
"It's really big for us to be hosting in the region and having home-court advantage," Grace senior Alex Smith said. "We've never had that before. We had awesome fans here tonight. I hope we have the same fans at home. Shout out to the fans. They were amazing tonight."
The Lady Golden Eagles got off to a slow start, losing the first set 23-25 and falling behind 4-0 in the second before coming back and winning 25-19, 25-21, 26-24.
"We knew Silverdale would come out here ready to play and ready to win," Grace coach Hillary Waters said. "Once we started to open up, relax and settle into the game we know how to play, start trusting our system, then I knew it was going to work well for us."
Waters acknowledged how the Grace fans began to pump life into the team once it started turning things around. Smith noted that the team overall is young and probably felt some nervousness in the beginning. Grace caught the Lady Seahawks at 16 in the second set and took the lead for good at 18-17.
Smith, a big hitter who has committed to Middle Tennessee State, ran into some stuffs in the early part of the match, particularly from Katie Patrick and Kayleigh Page, who combined for 10 blocks. But Smith continued on the attack, often using tips into unoccupied areas, and ended up with 27 kills.
"The tips were bomb," Smith said. "I'm not used to having a game with so many like that. I'm usually swinging away the whole time. I just saw some spots open. They did block me some. That was a little frustrating. I expect perfection. I have to know that's going to happen now and then."
Smith also had 20 digs and two blocks. But it was her offensive production, calling for the ball as the match wound down, that led to her being selected the tournament's most valuable player.
"She wants it," Waters said. "She's our senior leader. She's an amazing athlete. She wants the ball in her hands when the game is on the line. She knows how important she is to the success of our team."
Grace senior setter Summer Dean had 46 assists and surpassed the 1,000 mark in her career. Maggie Long led with 23 digs. Autumn Parrott was a key contributor with 11 kills and three aces.
Silverdale's kills leaders were Emma Dale and Kenzie Manning with six each. Falyn Blaylock equaled Gracie Pierce with 12 digs and also led the Lady Seahawks with 10 assists and five aces.
"I'm pround of my young players," SBA coach Nathan Daugherty said. "We fought at different times. We've just got to learn to be tougher for longer stretches. We've had some injuries this season and we had some out there playing with injuries tonight. It was only a week ago that we got our rotation like I wanted it. I just wish we could've had a little more time to get ready for tonight."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6653.