Cleveland apparently decided not to ease into the 2010 high school volleyball season.
The Lady Raiders have high hopes this year and will know plenty about themselves by the end of the first week. They started their season Tuesday with a 3-1 victory over 2009 Class AA state champion Red Bank at Red Bank.
Cleveland coach Trish Floweres said she felt her team needed to play an opponent of Red Bank's caliber early because the Lady Raiders' home opener Thursday is against Soddy-Daisy - a team they figure to be battling for the District 5-AAA regular-season title.
"We were feeling the tension the whole first game," Flowers said. "This was a big game to open the season with. The second game we started playing a little looser."
Cleveland won the first game 25-20, then won the second 25-15.
The Lady Lions got things going their way in the third game but not until after falling behind 7-4. A run of six consecutive points that included three of Kalyn Helton's 19 kills in the match put them ahead for good on the way to winning 25-14.
The 6-foot-1 Helton recently committed to play at the University of Tennessee, but seven of her 10 teammates who got on the floor Tuesday had no previous varsity experience. Danielle Moore was second in kills for Red Bank (0-1) with six.
"Cleveland is a very good team with a lot of experience," said Red Bank coach Christel Brooks, who also is Helton's mother. "They dig up everything."
The Lady Raiders bounced back and scored the first seven points of the fourth game and never trailed, although four times the Lady Lions battled back within two points - the last at 20-18.
"We struggled one game," Flowers said. "We had a lot of unforced errors. We hit a lot into the net, and our passes weren't right on target. One thing I'm really proud of the girls was the way they put the game before behind them. We adjusted and started hitting the ball down the line in the fourth game. We changed up our defense a little bit and ended up putting it away."
Cleveland eventually won 25-20, clinching the win when Ayesha Rock dinked a kill among three sprawling Lady Lions at the end of the longest rally of the match.
"I was proud of our effort, especially at the end," Brooks said. "We relaxed and played with intensity. If we had done that earlier in the match, maybe it would've been a little different. We've got a lot of young people that haven't played a lot, so we were nervous, a little shaky, but we're going to be fine."
Cleveland setter Kristen Pickett had 14 assists and was one of three with nine kills - three coming off fake sets. Rock's five aces and Payton Tipton's 18 digs were team highs.
Setters Amy Metcalf and freshman Abby Graham had 13 and 11 assists for the Lady Lions, and Ansley Helton led with 25 digs.