Walker Valley gave Ooltewah new life in the District 5-AAA high school volleyball race for first place. And the Lady Owls thanked the Lady Mustangs by defeating them 3-1 on Tuesday night.
Set scores at Ooltewah were 24-26, 25-13, 25-20, 25-22.
Ooltewah (23-9), which lost to Cleveland on Sept. 6, improved to 9-1 in the district. Walker Valley (12-9, 6-3) handed Cleveland its only district loss in nine matches when it beat the Lady Raiders 3-2 last Thursday.
All of that has led to a showdown for outright first place in the district when Ooltewah visits Cleveland on Thursday.
"We've got to play good, all-around ball," Ooltewah coach Elaine Peigen said. "We've got to limit our errors, serve well and play good defense. We can do it. I have faith in them."
The Lady Owls were sitting on set point at 24-21 before the Lady Mustangs rallied to win the opening set. Perhaps more precisely, Ooltewah had a meltdown. Carly Buckner had a two-handed kill in the Walker Valley's closing 5-0 rally. But the other points were two Lady Owls'shots into the net, a net touch and the last was a spike beyond the backline.
"We were ahead," Peigen said of the set. "We made too many unforced errors."
The Lady Owls never trailed in the second set, and the only tie was at 1. Kaley Walker's block made it 7-6 in the third set, and one of her match-high 12 kills made it 4-3 in the fourth. But those were the Lady Mustangs' only leads in those sets.
"We're up and down and all around," Walker Valley coach Judy Pruett said. "I don't know where their on-off button is. I know we must like to play from behind. We came from behind in that first game. But you can't do that with a team like Ooltewah. I felt like we played from behind all night. We never could get that good solid lead.
"Everybody has to step up for us as a full team. We're at our best when everybody is excited, pumped up and playing like they don't want to give up. I just don't see that all the time. Hopefully they can see the potential."
Sidney Killingsworth led the Lady Owls with eight kills, and Aubbie Collake and Macy Milliken added seven each. Milliken's all-around performance included 26 assists and 22 digs. Sydney Alleman also contributed at setter and had 10 assists to go with her 10 digs.
Courtney Swafford led with 32 digs. Collake, Shelby Sutton and Jadyn Raschke each served three aces. Cheyanne Sales was the blocks leader with five
Walker also paced Walker Valley in digs with 14, and Megan Malone contributed 13. Hannah Grace Moore chipped in with 11 and led in assists with 17. Julia McGuire led in blocks with four.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him at twitter.com@KelleySmiddie.