Hawks leave it all on the court
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Lady Hawks, 10, Chelsea Hendren returns serve with teammate, 13, Lilly Ringle. - Tony Christen
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Lady Bulldog, 24, Ella Mcdonald fires it back to the Hawks with support from teammate, 2, Cora Lobb. - Tony Christen
Two weeks ago, Hardin Valley Academy’s volleyball team had a comfortable lead against Bearden High School, up two sets to one and a sizable lead in the fourth.
Bearden pulled out the match three sets to two.
Monday night in the first round of the District 4-3A Volleyball Tournament at Maryville
High School, the third-seeded Lady Hawks again met the Lady Bulldogs, who are seeded sixth.
Oh, how sweet is revenge.
HVA took a two-set lead, only to see Bearden storm back to tie it at two sets apiece. But, the Lady Hawks regrouped to win the fifth set 15-9 and the match. They were scheduled to play second-seed Maryville Tuesday night, at Maryville.
“Gotta do it the hard way,” Lady Hawks’ coach Eric Boden said. “It was a good-fought win. We had some people play some different positions and those people stepped up and I’m really proud.”
“I’m proud of my team for the fight at the end,” BHS coach Katy Davidson said. “It was good, we just came up a little short.We played more as a team (in the third and fourth sets).”
Scoring streaks by both teams made the first set back and forth. Bearden led
14-8, but HVA then won five in a row and seven of nine. Three straight by Bearden made it 19-15, BHS, but the
Lady Hawks won 10 of the final 14 to win the set 25-23.
Mini-streaks and back-and-forth point-trading in the second led to a 20-19 Valley lead.Five straight to the end gave the Lady Hawks the set 25-19, and a two-to-none lead in the match.
The Lady ‘Dogs were hardly done.
Turnaround by BHS in the third set is an understatement. Down 4-2, Bearden ran off seven straight, and 13 of 15, and never looked back. The set score was an eye-popping 25-9.
In the fourth, the Lady Hawks led 6-2, but back came BHS, to win 10 of the next 13, and lead 12-9. Up 18-16, Bearden closed out the set, 25-21, by winning seven of the final 12.
“I think we got a little complacent and thought they were gonna give us the match,” Boden said. “You’re concerned about losing the third and fourth and wondering how the fifth is gonna go. I’m really proud how we rebounded.”
In the match-deciding set, HVA built leads of 6-3 and 9-4. The teams traded points after that to the end.
“We regrouped in the end,” said Valley junior setter Caroline Clauss. “We all said that if we’re gonna go out here and lose, we’re gonna leave everything on the court.”
Tuesday night Bearden played seventh-seed Lenoir City in the double-elimination event. Wednesday and Thursday matches move to Farragut.
