Lady ’Canes clinch top spot in 6-AA

East Hamilton has scheduled volleyball matches against 2016 state-tournament teams Signal Mountain and Cleveland coming up soon as the Lady Hurricanes prepare for postseason play. And after Thursday’s match at Hixson, they know where they’ll be positioned when it starts.

East Hamilton defeated the Lady Wildcats 3-1 and earned the District 6-AA regular-season championship. Thus, the Lady ’Canes will be top-seeded in the district tournament Oct. 2-3 at Hixson. Set scores were 25-18, 23-25, 25-23, 25-21.

Hixson was competitive throughout the match. The Lady Wildcats were within 17-13 in the first set before East Hamilton began to pull away.

The second set was so close that neither team held more than a two-point advantage throughout.

The Lady ’Canes twice led by five in the third set — the last at 18-13 — but Hixson fought back to tie it at 23 before a couple of hitting errors proved costly.

One of Gabby Tench’s three aces in the match had the Lady Wildcats within 14-13 in the fourth set before East Hamilton (14-2, 4-0) began stretching the lead little by little.

“We had a lot of big blocks, especially in that first set,” Hixson coach Janet Tate said. “We played real hard. I was really pleased with our effort. We didn’t quit. I’m good.”

Madison Hayes led the Lady ’Canes’ attack with 14 kills, and Raine Phillips added nine. Hillary Phillips contributed 28 assists and served seven aces, but the offense isn’t the big concern for firstyear coach Bruna Langner moving forward.

“My team is really young,” Langner said. “We’ve got an eighth-grader out there with some freshmen and sophomores. It’s been kind of what you’d expect with babies. They’re learning.

“I think we’ve got to try to get better on defense. We have a lot of work to do in the next week.”

Taryn Robinson was East Hamilton’s digs leader with 13. Kayla Ford was next with 11.

Abby Rector topped Hixson in digs with 13, and Shelby Rector and Dakota Rawiszer chipped in with nine apiece. Four Lady Wildcats had at least four kills, led by Rawiszer’s six. She was also the assists leader with nine.

Hixson (15-15, 2-1) has a district match remaining Tuesday for second place at Central, which has the same district record.

“They’ll always be ready,” Tate said of the Lady Purple Pounders. “They took a set from East Hamilton, too.”

Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@ timesfreepress.com or 423757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.