A volleyball match full of streaks goes Knoxville Catholic’s way at FHS, 3-2
It was a season-opening volleyball match full of streaks, both within the sets and the overall match itself.
Farragut led 2-1 in the best-of-five match at FHS Tuesday, Aug. 16, and needed but one more set to win. But Knoxville Catholic took control, winning the last two sets, and the match, 3-2.
“I’m proud of my girls,” FHS head coach Jo Madden said. “We are a young team. We have to work on a few defensive things, but I think we have a great season to look forward to.”
“We won ugly, but we won, so I’ll take it,” Lady Irish head coach Brent Carter said. “We had 20 errors in that third set. “Once we got it rolling, Devyn (Dunn) our setter, kept pushing the ball, so we were pretty good.”
In the first set, the Lady Admirals built a 7-4 lead before Catholic went on a 13-3 run to lead 17-10. Down 24-18, an errant Lady Admirals serve gave the set to the Lady Irish.
Early in the second set, it appeared the match would soon be 2-0 Lady Irish. Tied 6-6, Catholic grabbed 12 of the next 14 points to lead 18-8.
But FHS stormed back, winning five in a row to cut it to 18-13, then six of eight to trail 20-19.
Farragut then won six of the last eight points to take the set 25-23. Madi Neely had two kills in the late comeback.
The Lady Ads took a 2-1 lead in the match with a win in the third set. FHS again fell behind, trailing 17-13, before claiming 10 of the next 15 points to lead 23-22. Tied at 23, the final two Farragut points to take a 2-1 match lead included a kill by senior hitter McKenzie Turner.
But it was all Catholic after that. The Lady Irish built big leads in each of the final two sets, and there would be no Lady Admirals’ comeback. The fourth set was 25-9, the fifth 15-6.
“Really important,” said Dunn, statewide Gatorade Player of the Year last year, about the victory, “Especially with a whole new group getting used to each other.”
“I think they let down a little bit,” Madden said about her team’s last two sets.
“I think we got tired and stopped communicating,” FHS sophomore Elsa Morrison said.
About the momentum change at 2-1, Turner said, “It irritates me so much. I think we got a little bit cocky ... we gotta refocus.”
For the match, Morrison had 11 kills and Turner nine while Neely served three aces.
