One look at the records of the high school volleyball teams playing Tuesday at Hixson in the District 6-AA championship match and one would think it was a mismatch. But the two-hour-or-so marathon proved otherwise.
Regular-season champion East Hamilton ended up prevailing, yet not without a troublesome Hixson team pushing it to the limit. Both teams totaled 104 points, but the Lady Hurricanes came away with a 3-2 victory by set scores of 25-20, 22-25, 25-23, 17-25, 15-11.
“They’re going to cause me to have gray hair before I have to be there,” said a relieved East Hamilton coach, Bruna Langner.
Both East Hamilton (18-3) and Hixson (17-17) will advance to next week’s Region 3 tournament. The matchups won’t be determined until the District 5 final is played Thursday.
Langner said her team had a lot of unforced errors in the match, but it also had Madison Hayes, who totaled 18 kills and 10 digs and was chosen the tournament’s most valuable player.
Hixson coach Janet Tate called Hayes a “very, very good player” and said she expected her to get her kills. The Lady Wildcats tried to limit the damage the rest of the Lady ‘Canes could do.
“We fought,” Tate said. “I fight for them, if I think a call doesn’t go my way. They don’t have any fear. Our ball movement was better than it has been the past couple of weeks. We just need to tighten up a few things. I’m very pleased with the effort.”
Langner was equally complimentary of Hixson’s kills leader Shelby Rector, who in addition to registering 15 of those also had three aces, two blocks and 25 digs.
“She hits it everywhere, and she hits it hard,” Langner said. “We didn’t have a lot of discipline with our blocking. I think that made a difference. Hixson has a great team. They made us work really hard. We’ve got to be more consistent. That’s my focus at our next practice.”
Emma Mitchell supported Hayes with 12 kills. Hillary English had 35 assists and equaled Raine Phillips for team highs with three aces and four blocks.
Dakota Rawiszer’s all-around performance for Hixson included 10 kills, 15 assists, 15 digs and a team-best four aces. Gabby Tench led in assists with 16 and contributed 13 digs. Abby Rector was second in kills and digs for the Lady Wildcats with 12 and 16.
* District 5-A: At Marion County, Sale Creek won its seventh consecutive distric title, defeating Marion County 3-0 for the championship after beating Whitwell in a semifinal. Marion advanced to the final by edging Lookout Valley 3-2.
“We played really well,” Sale Creek coach Debbie Hill said. “I felt like we passed really well, and that got our offense going. We played well all the way around the floor, and we served well, too.”
Sale Creek (33-12) will host the Region 3 tournament Monday. Community will play the Lady Panthers at 4:30, followed by Marion taking on Columbia Academy at 6. The championship match is scheduled for 7:30.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.