Signal Mountain sweeps Upperman in 4-AA final
Signal Mountain defeated Upperman 3-0 on Tuesday at Signal Mountain and won the championship in the Region 4-AA high school volleyball tournament. Set scores were 25-17, 27-25, 25-21.
The Lady Eagles advanced to the final by defeating Livingston Academy 3-0 by set scores of 25-6, 25-7, 25-13. Upperman eliminated Red Bank in the other semifinal 3-1 by set scores of 25-22, 19-25, 25-20, 25-15.
Both Signal Mountain (40-7) and Upperman will play in Thursday’s state sectionals, where winners advance to the state tournament. Signal Mountain will again play at home at 7 p.m.
The Lady Eagles won the first set fairly handily but ran into some trouble in the second. Signal Mountain coach Bailee Barrett called a timeout with her team down 11-6 and pinpointed some things to a few players.
“Upperman has a great team,” Barrett said. “They’re really good at keeping the ball off the floor. That can be very frustrating. But I don’t think we performed at our highest level today, or last week during the district tournament.”
With the set tied at 25, Maia Rackel finished it off with back-toback kills.
“She’s definitely our go-to in that situation,” Barrett said. “But the thing is, when everybody’s playing well we’ve got multiple people playing like that.”
Rackel had 20 kills in the title match and 13 in the semifinal. She also had five blocks and 26 digs overall.
Kate Barry totaled 72 assists in the two matches for Signal Mountain
and had seven aces against Livingston Academy.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at
ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-665 Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.