‘Proud’ of Lady Ads ‘fight,’ Madden takes positives from v’ball loss
A two-match winning streak came to an end for the Farragut High School volleyball team last week.
The Lady Admirals, who had recent victories over Knoxville Catholic Wednesday, Sept. 8, and District 4-AAA rival Bearden Tuesday, Sept. 14 — both on the road — didn’t find their home floor too friendly Thursday, Sept. 16.
Farragut came up on the losing end of a 25-12, 25-17, 25-21 decision against Maryville in Lynn E. Sexton Gymnasium.
The Lady Rebels (15-6 overall, 5-0 in District 4-AAA) set the tone early as they jumped out to a 13-2 lead in the opening set and cruised to an easy victory in the opener. Maryville spotted FHS a 1-0 lead in the opening game before reeling off 11 of the next 13 points thanks to a nine-point service run by libero Delaney White.
Farragut made things a bit more interesting in the other two sets, which gave second-year head coach Jo Madden and the Lady Admirals (7-5, 3-2) something to build upon as the 2021 season continues to unfold.
“They fought back hard and I’m proud of them,” she said of her squad, which had early leads in all three sets.
Maryville head coach Chris Hames said the Lady Rebels’ service game was the difference on this night.
“We had six aces and we didn’t make a lot of errors,” said Hames, who formerly coached at Webb School of Knoxville, where she guided the Lady Spartans to six consecutive Division II-A State Championships from 2013 through 2018. “We’ve got a decent team and we played well tonight.
“They (the Lady Admirals) have kind of been on a roll, so for us to come over here and control our side of the court was really good,” she added. “I think one of the things that you don’t see in the stats is that we served really well.”
Defensively, “We were digging everything,” Hames said.
However, on the Navy blue side, “Our defense struggled a lot,” Madden said. “Maryville runs a quick offense, so we’ve got to get our defense where they need to be quicker so they can make the reads quicker.
“Maryville was on it. They picked up everything and we just weren’t there tonight,” she added.
Farrgut’s seniors were the leaders in its hitting attack. Ellie Ackermann had six kills while Kate Priest and Meg Frank finished with five kills each.
