Signal Mountain wins two in state volleyball tourney

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

Signal Mountain was the only one of four Chattanooga area teams to win two matches on the opening day of the Tennessee state volleyball tournament.

Boyd-Buchanan, Baylor and Red Bank each lost at least once on Wednesday. Red Bank started its second match of the day more than two hours after its 7:30 scheduled start time.

The Lady Eagles defeated Page 3-2 in the first round and Christian Academy of Knoxville 3-2 in the second round Wednesday night at at Stewarts Creeks.

Signal Mountain (44-10) rallied from deficits in both matches to advance to the semifinals today at 2 p.m. EST against Knoxville Catholic. The Lady Eagles beat Page by scores of 16-25, 24-26, 25-21, 25-19 and 15-13. They beat CAK 20-25, 25-16, 14-25, 25-21 and 15-9.

In the Class A tournament at Blackman High School, Boyd-Buchanan swept Loretto 3-0 then lost to Trinity Christian 3-1. The Lady Bucs (33-15) beat Loretto by scores of 25-19, 25-14 and 25-21. They fell to Trinity Christian 23-25, 22-25, 25-22 and 25-1.

"We played flat in our first match, but against a stronger team, you can't stay flat," Boyd-Buchanan coach Alfie Dodd said over the phone. "The negative is we lost. THe positive is we know that we can do a lot better, and if we do, then we'll fight our way through the loser's bracket."

Baylor split its matches in the Division II-AA tournament at Siegel Middle School. The Lady Raiders (41-9) lost to Father Ryan 3-1. They rebounded to beat Ensworth 3-1 in the loser's bracket. Baylor won by scores of 25-20, 25-22, 20-25 and 25-15.

"Our first match against Father Ryan was a great match, then we had to battle back against a good Ensworth team," Baylor coach Sarah Lail said over the phone. "It's hard to have a draining match in the morning then play for the end of your season.

"In the afternoon we had more communication and we were spreading out the offense more and kept them guessing."

Back at Stewarts Creek, Red Bank fell 3-0 to Knox Catholic in the opening match of the day. The Lions trailed 2-0 to Harpeth in a late-evening game.

Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6484. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.

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