MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The way Knoxville Catholic performed throughout the TSSAA Class AA volleyball state tournament this week, perhaps second place was the best any other team was going to do.
That distinction goes to Signal Mountain.
The Lady Irish not only handled Signal Mountain 3-0 in Friday's championship match at Middle Tennessee State, they didn't lose a set the entire tournament. Set scores in the final were 25-18, 25-13, 25-19.
"No disrespect to them," Catholic coach Brent Carter said of the Lady Eagles, "but we feel like if we perform to our capabilities from our side, control the ball and keep it in play, we're really tough to beat."
Catholic (33-11) set often for Kamila Cieslik, who produced 19 kills and was selected MVP in the championship match. Her 13 digs were second only to teammate Olivia Cunningham's 15.
"We work a lot on not letting balls hit the floor in practice," Carter said. "It's ingrained in the girls, and they take that to the floor with them with the real live balls. They're great competitors."
Cunningham also had the most aces with three. Olivia Kozemoko was the assists leader for the Lady Irish, who never trailed in the first set and trailed only at 1-0 in the second, with 21.
"They have a great team," Signal Mountain coach Jennifer Redman said. "Great teams can make other great teams look bad sometimes. Their defense was on. Their offense was on. You can't take anything away from Knox Catholic. They were clicking."
Aubrie Johnson paced Signal Mountain (47-10) with 11 kills. Kate Barry led in assists with 17 and digs with 11. Nicole Terfloth and Elaine Redman chipped in with nine digs each.
"I'm extremely happy we made it this far after losing the first match of the tournament," Coach Redman said.
"I've got a great group of girls who worked hard. They've worked their rear ends off since June."
The coach said she wasn't sure if her team would've fared better had the match been played the night before when they were riding an emotional high. But she did say it's difficult to maintain that for consecutive days.
"We could've crumbled at any point yesterday," Redman said of her team's three victories in succession Thursday on the heels of going 1-1 Wednesday. "We fought to get to today. There's not a reason to hang our heads down low. We're the second-best team in the state in double-A."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.