This volleyball coaching thing is pretty easy, huh, Savannah Nelson?
Nelson is in her first season heading Red Bank's program, and after Tuesday's 3-1 victory at Hixson her Lady Lions are officially the District 6-AA regular-season champions. Set scores were 25-22, 20-15, 25-19, 25-18.
"We talked about wanting to be undefeated in the district," said Nelson, whose team improved to 17-13 overall and finished the district regular season 6-0. "That's something to be proud of. I'm really proud of the way we executed. A lot of plays could've gone either way. I think the only thing that hurt us was serve-receiving."
Hixson coach Janet Tate didn't think her team served particularly well. But then again, there were plenty of other phases of the game in which she felt the same way.
"You have to have that fire," Tate said. "I've been telling them all season long. We've got to have a big effort. Not Courtney Jones. She's a senior. She gets it. She was on the team that went to the state tournament. She understands how it works."
Jones' 12 kills, 18 digs and two blocks were all team highs for Hixson (11-16, 2-1). Sam Dove was the assists leader with 19.
"I never know who's going to step up," Tate said. "They're going to have to decide what they want to do. I can't do it."
Things may have gone completely different had the Lady Wildcats won the opener - a set in which they led 15-6. The Lady Lions came back and caught them at 20, and then back-to-back aces by Shelby Romans started Red Bank toward the win.
"I thought that gave us hope," said Nelson, who used a timeout with her team leading 23-22. "That last timeout I told them, 'Go out there and do everything right. We need to break serve right now or we're going to have lots of problems.'"
It was Hixson that rallied in the third set. But falling behind 17-3 proved to be too much to overcome.
The Lady Wildcats were within three points in the late stages of the fourth set, but the Lady Lions closed it out by scoring the final four points.
Marjorie Smith led Red Bank's net play with 16 kills and four blocks. Cassidy Payne led in digs with 14. Hannah Wood had 16 assists, and her three aces were second only to Romans' four.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him at twitter.com@KelleySmiddie.