Rally past rival FHS finds Lady Hawks vball advancing; Lady Admirals’ season ends
HARDIN VALLEY — Farragut High School’s up-and-down 2022 volleyball season came to end Monday night, Oct. 3, in the first round of the District 4-AAA Tournament at HVA.
The Lady Admirals led two sets to one, but couldn’t hold on and lost the final two sets, and the match 3-2. The tourney’s No. 4-seeded Lady Hawks won the first set 25-18, lost the next two 25-23 and 25-22, then won 25-9 and 15-11.
Though down 2-1 in sets, “Not really (worried at that point),” HVA head coach Joy Waller said. “I just wanted ‘em to play. We have a different rotation, we have some players out, so we had to get our way back in. But they did their job and got the win tonight.”
In the fifth set, Farragut fought back from a 9-5 deficit to trail 10-9, but then won just two of the final seven points.
“We weren’t worried,” HVA hitter Calleigh Ringle said “We played together and knew we could come back.”
Ringle led all players with 18 kills. Anna Cate Hyatt had 40 assists and Sydney Bjornstad had 18 digs for the winners.
Hardin Valley’s win set up a second-round match against top-seed Maryville (after deadline), whom HVA split two matches with in the regular season.
Senior hitter Mack Turner led Farragut in kills with 15 Monday night. Setter Tori McNair led in assists with 28. Elsa Morrison and Anniston Kennedy each had 14 digs.
Farragut (10-20), the tourney’s No. 5 seed, closed out the regular season last week with wins versus Anderson County and Morristown East, and losses to Webb School and Greeneville. Monday night’s match put its final record at 10-20.
“It’s what I expected,” Turner said. “We lost a lot of girls from last year. We definitely worked with what we had and (hitter) Elsa (Morrison) is a huge asset. We could have wanted it more.”
“I think we ran out of steam at that point,” FHS head coach Jo Madden said, as Hardin Valley was 3-0 in matches versus Farragut this season.
“We didn’t have enough to fight back. We lost to them in three sets earlier so this shows that we’ve improved,” the Lady Ads skipper added. “Our seniors were great. They provided leadership and we’ll miss them.”
Bearden wins
Also Monday night, Bearden easily beat William Blount in straight sets, 25-18, 25-14, 25-11 to set up a semifinal match against Heritage (after deadline), who beat Lenoir City.
