CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Walker Valley volleyball coach Judy Pruett had her concerns coming into Monday's District 5-AAA high school volleyball semifinal against Ooltewah at Bradley Central. Her second-seeded Lady Mustangs had beaten the third-seeded Lady Owls three out of three times this season, once in a tournament, and Ooltewah had taken a set from them each time.
But the outcome in the tournament proved again to be the same, other than this time it was a sweep. Walker Valley's 3-0 victory was by set scores of 25-16, 25-23, 25-11.
"You don't ever want to take a team like Ooltewah for granted, and we did not," Pruett said. "They always have a good team."
The Lady Mustangs will face top-seeded Cleveland in today's championship match at 6 p.m. The Lady Raiders beat McMinn County 3-0 by set scores of 25-16, 25-15, 25-8 in the other semifinal. McMinn's Lady Cherokees had beaten Bradley Central 3-1 in Monday's first match.
Walker Valley (23-12) scored the first seven points of its match, and even though the second set ended up close, the Lady Owls' only lead was 1-0.
"We just got out to a really slow start," Ooltewah coach Elaine Peigen said. "We couldn't get our offense right; we couldn't get our defense right. We were out of rhythm of sorts. Walker Valley's a good team. They changed things up on us."
Aly Grace Lemons led the Lady Mustangs with 17 kills, and fellow senior Carly Buckner added nine. Classmate Hannah Grace Moore tied for the team high with 17 digs. The other senior, Alice Woolson, contributed two digs.
"Our four seniors really wanted a win," Pruett said. "They wanted to go to the region really bad."
Carissa Frost was also a key performer with 17 digs and seven aces. Sophie Frederick had 32 assists.
Pruett said her team tried to limit the effectiveness of libero Mabry Carpenter, who ended up with 19 digs for Ooltewah (19-15). Ally Chernak led the Lady Owls with six kills and four aces and equaled Macy Milliken with six assists. Cheyenne Sales chipped in with five kills and led with three blocks.
The leaders for Cleveland (29-15) were Emma Flowers with 15 kills, Hannah Longley with 14 digs, Anna Renshaw with 17 assists and Longley, Nicole Glaser and Sofia Lakatosh with three aces each.
The Lady Raiders, who are coming off playing in the Gold final of the Middle Tennessee Classic, beat Walker Valley 3-2 in both regular-season district meetings.
"I'm excited to get the opportunity to play Walker Valley again," Cleveland coach Trish Flowers said. "I'm anxious to see if our girls can carry over with the way we played this weekend. You never know how a Walker Valley-Cleveland match is going to go."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.