Cleveland made its state volleyball tournament debut Wednesday at Middle Tennessee State University's Murphy Center, and the Lady Raiders can at least say they weren't winless in their first trip.
Cleveland lost its Class AAA opener 3-0 to Siegel, but bounced back to defeat Ravenwood 3-1. Set scores in the loss were 25-17, 25-17, 25-21. The Lady Raiders won 12-25, 29-27, 25-23, 27-25.
Cleveland (39-14) plays next against Farragut at MTSU at 11 a.m. Eastern today.
Emma Flowers had 27 kills in the victory and 17 in the loss. Lauren Lee had 54 digs in the two matches and assists leader Anna Renshaw had 50 combined. Hannah Longley served three aces and Morgan Moffett contributed three blocks in the win.
"We played pretty good, considering it was our first appearance here," said Cleveland coach Trish Flowers. "I think the first game we should've won, or could've won. We had 10 ball-handling errors. We weren't passing Siegel's serves very well.
"We came back and beat Ravenwood. I think our biggest goal was to not just settle for being at the state tournament and realize that we're good enough to win some games here."
Class AA
Signal Mountain fell into the losers bracket by losing its opener 3-2 to Sullivan South. Set scores were 25-21, 12-25, 24-26, 25-22, 15-10. The Lady Eagles then beat Jackson Southside 3-0 in a late match by set scores of 25-16, 25-14, 25-11.
Signal Mountain (44-9) will play Dyersburg today at Siegel at 12:30 p.m. Eastern.
Red Bank (24-18) saw its season come to an end with losses to Dyersburg and Page. The first was 3-0, by set scores of 25-16, 25-20, 25-16. The loss to Page was 23-25, 25-12, 25-8, 25-21.
"I'm proud of my girls for making it this far, but I'm disappointed in the way we finished," Red Bank first-year coach Savannah Nelson said. "We were outplayed by the experience these other girls have."
Class A
Sale Creek won its first match at Siegel High School 3-0 over Loretto. Set scores were 25-15, 25-17, 25-18. But the Lady Panthers were dropped to the losers bracket with a 3-2 loss to Concord Christian. Set scores were 25-13, 25-19, 18-25, 18-25, 15-7.
Sale Creek (40-6) plays next at MTSU at 12:30 p.m. Eastern against the winner between Summertown and Middleton, which played in a late match.
Abbey Burton led the Lady Panthers in kills on the day with 34 and Morgan Weatherford totaled 50 digs. Bailey Nelson, who served five aces in the first match, had 54 assists overall. Gracie Janow led Sale Creek with five blocks against Loretto and Madysun Steele had nine against Concord Christian.
Division II-AA
Baylor had little trouble with fellow East/Middle Region member Father Ryan, defeating the Lady Irish 3-0 at MTSU. Set scores were 25-11, 25-10, 25-13.
Baylor (44-2) plays Briarcrest (44-3) in today's winners-bracket final at Blackman High School at 12:30 p.m. Eastern.
"We were on the attack the whole time, from the service line and from the front row," Baylor coach Sarah Lail said. "We had 12 aces in the match. We didn't have to play very much defense because I felt like we were always on the attack offensively."
Sarah Sumida and Ally Craig each had three assists for the Lady Red Raiders, and Gabby Gray's 14 kills were a team-high. Other leaders were Paris Buckner with three blocks, Lilly Turner with eight digs and Sumida with 38 assists.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.