‘Brothers’ teams battle
Catholic defeated Farragut 25-18, 25-19
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Lady Irish’s Nora James, 2, digs to return an Admirals volley. - Photos by Tony Christen
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Lady Admirals ran off five straight to lead 6-4. Four of the five points came on the powerful serving of freshman Megan Frana. - Photos by Tony Christen
It was a volleyball match between two teams whose coaches are the best of friends.
“He’s my brother,” said Andre Alves, coach of Farragut High School’s team, of Brent Carter, coach of visiting Knoxville Catholic High School. “We coached together for eight years. We’re always pushing each other. I’m really happy for his team.”
Monday night in the Lynn E. Sexton gymnasium, Carter got the best of his “brother,” as KCHS took the non-district match two sets to none. Alves was impressed with Carter’s girls.
“He has a shot at winning (the) state (tournament),” Alves said. “He’s got all the horses. They are really, really talented.”
“We just had more attacking in the end that scored more points,” Carter said. “Love coming in here and being across from Andre.”
Catholic led 4-1 in the first set, before the Lady Admirals ran off five straight to lead 6-4. Four of the five points came on the powerful serving of freshman Megan Frana.
The teams then traded points to a 13-all tie; but from there, it was all KCHS. The Lady Irish won 12 of the final 16 points to win the set, 25-17. Three of Farragut’s four points came on serving errors by Catholic.
KCHS jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the second set, but three in a row by FHS made it 6-5. KCHS led 16-12 but then won four straight to lead 20-12. The match seemed all but over.
The Lady Admirals then won five of six to hang in, 21-17; but Catholic won four of the final six points to take the set 25-19.
“I tried to find weaknesses, and my girls executed really well,” Alves said. “This could have been really ugly; we could have lost in single digits.”
“I think we played very well against them,” Frana said. “I feel like we played as a team and really fought. Even though it didn’t end like we wanted it to, it was still good.”
“The future’s very bright for that kid,” Alves said of Frana.
Reese Goodson led FHS in kills with three. Madison Kupferer had seven digs, and Frana had four aces. Goodson and Katharine Cabaniss each had three blocks.
“Overall super pleased, super proud of the girls,” Alves said. “Be back here ready to go Thursday.”
Farragut hosts Webb School of Knoxville Thursday night.
