Ooltewah's Hanna Matthews sets the ball in Wednesday's Class AAA state tournament match against Siegel. The Lady Owls beat Siegel 3-1 before losing to Brentwood 3-0 in their second match.Win one, lose won was the pattern Wednesday for four of the five local teams in first-round competition Wednesday in the TSSAA state volleyball tournament at Murfreesboro. Win one, lose none was how it went for Baylor.
The Lady Red Raiders, competing in Division II-AA, played only a semifinal at Blackman High School and defeated St. Benedict 3-1. Set scores were 25-17, 25-16, 21-25, 25-20.
Class AAA Ooltewah, Class AA Signal Mountain and Red Bank and Class A Boyd-Buchanan were the teams that split.
Baylor (40-7) plays St. Agnes (29-5) today in the winners-bracket final at Stewarts Creek at 12:30 p.m. EDT. The loser will play again at 3:30 in the losers-bracket final. The winner advances to Friday's championships at Middle Tennessee State University. The Division II-AA final is set for 1 p.m. EDT.
Gabby Gray paced the Lady Raiders with 16 kills and Greyson Ingle led with five blocks. Haven Bethune had team-highs with 34 assists and three aces and Lilly Turner made 30 digs.
"We came out real strong the first two games," Baylor coach Sarah Lail said. "We served really well and got them out of there offense. The third game we got down 6-0 and at one point it was 19-9. We just didn't really perform well, but we did come back to 21 and gained a lot of momentum at the end. We came out in game four and got our serving and hitting back and ended up winning."
Ooltewah (45-11) defeated Siegel 3-1, by scores of 23-25, 25-23, 25-20, 25-13, before losing 3-0 to Brentwood High at MTSU. Those set scores were 25-19, 25-13, 25-16.
The Lady Owls play Dobyns-Bennett (40-10) at Siegel at 11 a.m. EDT. They must also win matches at 3:30 and 5:30 to get to Friday's title match at 7 EDT.
Fourteen of Courtlyn Ison's 19 kills on the day and nine of her 13 blocks came against Siegel. Josie Cain had 11 digs in the Siegel match and Sloan Sullivan had eight against the Lady Bruins. Hanna Matthews totaled 43 assists.
"Against Siegel I thought we had strong net play," Ooltewah coach Elaine Peigen said. "We came ready to play. We had a lot of enthusiasm on the bench, as well as on the floor. Brentwood has a great team. After playing such a hard match against Siegel, we were a little bit flat.
"Tommorrow we just need to play ball and have fun like we did against Siegel."
Signal Mountain beat Crockett County 3-2 to start with at MTSU. Set scores were 25-8, 16-25, 25-22, 19-25, 15-8. But the Lady Eagles lost to Sullivan South 3-0 by scores of 25-16, 25-9, 25-14.
"They were good," Signal Mountain coach Jennifer Redman said of the Lady Rebels. "We were kind of starstruck. They hit the ball probably harder than any team we've faced so far. They made us look bad. "Hopefully they realize they have to play all the time. This is the state tournament. Everybody's good."
Signal Mountain (34-22) will play Red Bank (23-25) today at Blackman at 12:30, with the winner needing to win three matches to get to Friday's final at 5 EDT.
Taelor Kellum topped the Lady Eagles with 32 kills and eight blocks overall. Aryn Sanders totaled 38 digs. Amanda Thielges had 40 assists in the first match and Carolynn Thielges had 11 in the second. Sanders and Hallie Hunt eached served four aces in the victory.
Red Bank lost 3-1 to Page by scores of 21-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-23 before defeating Dyersburg 3-1 in a late match. Those scores were 25-19, 25-22, 12-25, 25-21.
Boyd-Buchanan began by beating Eagleville 3-0. Set scores were 25-15, 25-16, 25-16.
"We had the best first match you could ask for," Boyd-Buchanan coach Ashley Rose said. "We won, won convincingly, and no nerves showed through. I was hoping that would set the tone for the rest of the day."
But afterward, the Lady Bucs lost 3-0 to South Greene by scores of 25-23, 28-26, 25-23.
Boyd-Buchanan (31-14) plays at Stewarts Creek at 12:30 EDT against Loretto (30-13). The winner would have to win again at 3:30 and 5:30 to advance to Friday's championship at 3 EDT.
"I'm hoping the match we lost was a little bit of a wake-up call," Rose said. "Maybe the girls will see they're not going to give us anything. You have to earn it. Playing well is a must."
Kristen Reynolds was a standout for the Lady Bucs, leading them with 19 kills, 28 assists and four aces. Asia Kirkman added 18 kills and Halie Williamson contributed 27 assists. Katie Delay led with 75 digs.
Sonoraville seeded sixth
Sonoraville will be the No. 6-seeded team in the GHSA Class AAA state volleyball quarterfinals and will take on third-seeded Woodward Academy at Woodward on Saturday at 4 p.m.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.