MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Signal Mountain and Boyd-Buchanan each won twice Wednesday and will square off today at approximately 2 p.m. EDT at Middle Tennessee State University in the winners-bracket final of the TSSAA Class A state volleyball tournament at Murfreesboro.
Four others qualified from Hamilton County, including Red Bank in Class AA. The Lady Lions will need to win three losers-bracket matches today, the first against Sullivan East at 11 a.m., in order to get to Friday’s championship match.
Baylor will play either St. Benedict or Ensworth in today’s Division II-AA losers-bracket final at 3:30 at MTSU.
* Class A: At Siegel, Signal Mountain was among the first to play in the tournament and beat White House Heritage 25-9, 25-17, 25-23. The Lady Eagles later cruised past Trinity Christian 25-8, 25-10, 25-8.
Callie Hildebrand had 16 of her 27 kills and Sydni Abbajay had 15 of her 22 in the first match. Hildebrand was also their digs leader on the day with 30. Abbajay led in aces with five and Georgia Paturalski totaled 57 assists.
“We played pretty well,” Signal Mountain coach Jennifer Redman said. “We had everything clicking. Our serves were on. The first match it felt like we were crusing and not really trying to put them away quickly. The second match we played hard all three games. If we keep talking on defense and getting our serves in, it’s going to be fun tommorrow.”
Boyd-Buchanan got past Madison 25-17, 15-17, 25-15 before rallying for a 20-25, 25-18, 25-12, 25-23 victory over Summertown.
The Lady Bucs were led in kills by Rachel Harper’s 38 and she and Hope Johnson served seven aces apiece. Kristen Reynolds’ 67 assists and Jessica Kirk’s 39 digs were also team highs.
* Class AA: At MTSU, Red Bank found itself in the same situation as last season, facing Page after both won their openers. The Lady Lions lost that match a year ago, then came back and beat Page in the championship match.
Red Bank defeated Crockett County 25-16, 25-7, 25-11 on Wednesday, then lost to Page 25-15, 25-19, 25-19.
“We didn’t serve-receive well, and we didn’t block well,” Red Bank coach Christel Brooks said of her team’s play in the loss. “Savannah Nelson came around in the second and third games, but overall we’ve got to have more blocking against them.”
Nelson had four blocks in each match for the Lady Lions. Their other leaders on the day were Kalyn Helton with 31 kills, Abby Graham with 39 assists and Ansley Helton with 31 digs and four aces.
Goodpasture beat East Ridge 25-11, 25-15, 25-11 and Sullivan East defeated the Lady Pioneers 23-25, 25-23, 25-18, 25-16, ending their season.
East Ridge’s Daisha Jackson had 36 kills. Markia Harden totaled 40 digs and Haven Carter had 41 assists.
* Class AAA: At MTSU, Independence defeated Soddy-Daisy 25-18, 25-21, 27-25 in a match where the Lady Trojans had leads in each of the first two games and, although they trailed most of the third, had game point at 25-24.
Hayli Raines paced the Lady Trojans with 15 kills and 12 digs against Independence. Rachel Shaughnessy made seven blocks and Cassidy Hackney served four aces.
Soddy-Daisy played Collierville in a late losers-bracket match.
* Division II-AA: At Blackman, Baylor bounced back from a 25-23, 25-23, 25-22 loss to St. Benedict and beat St. Agnes 25-21, 25-20, 25-13.
“We made a couple of unforced errors on our side,” Baylor coach Sarah Lail said about the loss. “Hopefully we’ll see them again as we come back through.”
Lady Raiders Rachel Travis and Nicole Sumida combined for 52 kills in the two matches. Katelyn Armstrong topped the team with 24 digs and four aces and Rebecca Schmitt set 74 assists.