MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Signal Mountain senior Georgia Paturalski recalled the three-a-day practices in summer. She gave credit to the freshmen and their work helping make the team better. She spoke of the collective goal.
Being a key figure on a team that has extended its season as far as it can go will make one appreciate such things.
The Lady Eagles defeated region rival Boyd-Buchanan 3-1 on Thursday at Middle Tennessee State University in the winners-bracket final of the TSSAA Class A volleyball tournament.
Boyd-Buchanan bounced back in the losers-bracket final and beat Summertown 3-0, so the Lady Bucs and Lady Eagles will have a rematch of the Region 3 final in today’s championship match at MTSU at 3 p.m. EDT.
Signal won 25-21, 14-25, 25-17, 25-21 on Thursday.
“As a senior I’m so proud of our team,” Paturalski said. “Everyone has worked so hard. Boyd is a good team. They bring it every time. We do respect Boyd. It’s a fun rivalry.”
Paturalski’s primary role is setter, and she totaled 32 assists and also made a kill off a fake set. Additionally she made eight digs and three blocks and served an ace.
“The games we won, the defense picked it up,” Paturalski said. “We read their hitters well and were trusting each other. And our hitters were putting it down.”
Customarily leading in that department was junior Callie Hildebrand with 19 kills. She also topped Signal Mountain (50-15) with 19 digs and three aces.
Junior Carly Jonakin supported Hildebrand at the net with five kills and three aces. Senior right-side hitter Sydni Abbajay was limited to two kills but provided four blocks, 16 digs and two aces.
“Once again I felt like they came together,” Signal coach Jennifer Redman said. “They were determined not to lose that fourth game. When our serving is on, it’s hard for them get a good pass to the setter.”
Game scores for Boyd-Buchanan (41-21) against Summertown were 27-25, 25-16, 25-17.
Rachel Harper had 42 kills, 49 digs and six aces in the two matches for the Lady Bucs, while Maggie Brown had 24 kills and 20 digs, Kristen Reynolds totaled 72 assists and 16 dgs, Jessica Kirk had 43 kills and Hope Johnson had 35 digs with 13 kills.
“We ran off and on, hot and cold,” Boyd-Buchanan coach Amber Nolen said of the Signal Mountain match. “We were either really good or really bad. Our serve-receive wasn’t as strong as it usually is. I think every now and then we play a little too tense. When you play not to lose, you’re going to lose.”
n Class AAA: At Siegel, Soddy-Daisy’s record-setting season came to an end 3-0 at the hands of defending champion Dobyns-Bennett. Game scores were 25-19, 25-16, 25-22.
“We were competitive with Dobyns-Bennett,” Lady Trojans coach Lorri Johnson said. “They had to earn it. We didn’t give it to them. I’m proud of the players and the fight we had. Obviously we’d rather have had a different result.”
The Lady Trojans’ 3-2 victory over Collierville was their first win in two state-tournament trips. It also left their season school record at 50, to go with 13 losses.
Hayli Raines had 15 kills and Jessica Smith had four blocks. They are Soddy-Daisy’s only seniors.
“Our program has come from being just a high school program to being a competitive triple-A program,” Johnson said. “We earned respect by getting here and playing as hard as we played. As far as laying a foundation for the program, we’ve done that.”