Collierville volleyball beats Houston in first game back from quarantine
The pitch in Rachel Mccollum's voice went up a note or two when she began talking about how excited she was to be back on the volleyball court and competing against last year's Class AAA runner-ups.
Collierville shut down in-person learning for the past two weeks after a pair of cases found on the football team. Students returned to school on Monday, which was also the first day that the school's sports teams could resume practice.
But if there was any rustiness for the Collierville volleyball team, it didn't show Thursday night as the Dragons picked up a road win over rival Houston in four sets.
"The past few years, we haven't beaten Houston and the team really came together so it felt incredible winning," Mccollum said. "I feel like it's one of the biggest rivalries in Memphis and Tennessee. I feel like we always come out swinging hard against them, doing out best and that's for both sides."
"I'm sweating and shaking I have goosebumps. I'm thrilled," Collierville coach Lindsay Vicknair said. "They've worked so hard. We've only played eight games this season but they've played better and more as a team and more excited than I've seen them play."
Vicknair said that the Dragons had to quarantine during the summer, but that this was their first in-season quarantine.
"Its' a little bit stressful because you don't know and with teams like Houston they haven't really felt the effects of this yet," Vicknair said. "They've been able to go out and play their normal schedule and go about business as day to day."
Mccollum, a six-foot setter, has offers from UNLV and Arkansas state. She led Collierville to the Class AAA state tournament last season and was a first-team all-metro selection the past two years. She said that it was tough having to stay home from school.
"I'd say it was definitely tough, you have to hold yourself accountable a lot and just make sure you're staying on your grind when you're at home and you can't really do that much," said Mccollum.
Houston, which made last year's Class AAA title match, won the first set before dropping the final three.
"I felt like Collierville played great, they played great defense, they started passing and when they started passing we struggles with them being so scrappy," Houston coach Becky Pendleton said. "They did great. They have some great leaders on that team. Tia (Rizvi) and Rachel Mccollum, you can't really beat that size."