Things went well for the Chattanooga area's lone Division II team competing Tuesday in a TSSAA state volleyball tournament at Murfreesboro, but not as well for the four Division I teams.
Baylor won its only match of the day in the Division II-AA tournament, 3-0 over fellow East/Middle Region opponent Father Ryan, a team it had swept in the regular season. Set scores at Middle Tennessee State University were 25-19, 25-12, 25-23.
Baylor coach Sarah Lail said things went a little slow for her team in the beginning but improved once her players were able to "get into our flow."
"We ended up playing a solid game," Lail said. "We definitely knew what to expect, but it's hard to beat a team three times that's well-coached."
The Lady Red Raiders play today at 12:30 p.m. EDT at Blackman against another East/Middle team in Brentwood Academy - with which it split region matches. All the tournaments are double-elimination on the way to Thursday's championship matches, which is where the winner between Baylor (40-5) and BA (30-6) will land. It's at MTSU at 11:30 a.m. EDT.
"Everyone from here on out is going to be good," Lail said. "It's going to come down to who is on their game at the right time. I feel good about the position we're in."
Leaders for the Lady Raiders included Ally Craig with 12 kills and Zoe Ubamadu with six blocks. Denver Rogers led with eight digs and four aces and Sarah Sumida set 21 assists.
* Class AA at Siegel: East Hamilton won 3-0 over Sullivan South by set scores of 25-22, 25-14, 25-17 before falling 3-0 to Portland. Those set scores were 25-19, 25-23, 29-27.
Knoxville Catholic beat Signal Mountain 3-0 by set scores of 26-24, 25-18, 25-21. The Lady Eagles came back and defeated Dyersburg 3-0 in a late match by set scores of 25-18, 25-18, 25-19.
Madison Hayes had 22 kills, five aces and 35 digs in the two matches for the Lady Hurricanes, who play Signal Mountain (42-8) today at MTSU at 12:30 EDT. Either would have to win three matches today to get to Thursday's championship match.
"We played really well," East Hamilton coach Bruna Langner said of her team's first match. "We played first-rate defense. We played together. It was beautiful to watch. The second game we did not have our best game. That's not an excuse. The kids were in the gym all day. We didn't really have the players helping keep each other up. It happens. Portland has a great team. They put a lot of pressure on us and we just didn't handle it."
Emma Mitchell added 21 kills and Jordyn Griffith led East Hamilton (23-4) with five blocks. Hillary English amassed 59 assists.
* Class AAA at Blackman: Cleveland (34-16) lost its opener 3-0 to Brentwood High by set scores of 25-21, 25-12, 25-23. Then the Lady Raiders rallied from two sets down to edge Houston 3-2 by set scores of 12-25, 18-25, 26-24, 25-23, 16-14.
Emma Flowers totaled 55 kills on the day for the Lady Raiders. Anna Renshaw had 61 assists and Hannah Longley led with 33 digs.
Cleveland's next match is against Collierville at 11 a.m. EDT at MTSU.
* Class A at MTSU: Sale Creek suffered a 3-0 loss to Knoxville's Berean Christian by set scores of 25-16, 25-14, 25-13, but came back in a late match and won 3-0 over Union City. Those set scores were 25-12, 25-8, 25-13.
Sale Creek (37-13) will play Loretto today at 12:30 EDT against Loretto.
* GHSA Class AAAA: At Cartersville, Ga., Heritage saw its season come to an end with a 3-0 loss. Set scores were 25-15, 25-14, 25-20.
Top performers for the Generals were Macy Harris with seven kills and five digs and Kali Brown with six kills and six digs.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.