‘Focused’ Grace Academy controls Lady Bucs, 3-1
Grace Academy volleyball coach Hillary Waters lost a set to Boyd-Buchanan on Thursday. Her words.
Her Lady Golden Eagles hosted and defeated the Lady Buccaneers 3-1 in a key District 5-A high school match. Set scores were 25-13, 25-27, 25-17, 25-14.
The lopsided score in the opening set was thanks in large part to a run that began with Grace leading 11-9. After a Boyd-Buchanan shot went long, behind Lexie Mullins’ serve the Lady Golden Eagles pushed their lead to 11 and coasted from there.
“We came in very focused today,” said Waters, whose team improved to 13-5 overall and more importantly 6-0 in the district. “We knew it was a big game as far as seeding for the district tournament. We knew we needed to win this first time.”
The teams will play again Sept. 22 at Boyd-Buchanan.
“They’ve got a good team,” Boyd-Buchanan coach Nancy Culver said. “I like what they do. I like their energy. They had that every game. We need to bring that every set.”
“We came in very focused today. We knew it was a big game as far as seeding for the district tournament. We knew we needed to win this first time.” – HILLARY WATERS, GRACE ACADEMY COACH
Grace jumped to a 5-0 lead starting the second set, prompting a Lady Bucs timeout. Things got a little giddy for the Lady Golden Eagles during that break and Boyd-Buchanan was able to come back quickly and get the set tied at 7. It was close the rest of the way with the Lady Bucs prevailing.
“The second game was my fault,” Waters said. “We got out to a lead and I allowed things to get silly, and we never refocused. We talk about taking responsibility for our actions. I take full responsibility for it. For the team to pull it back together like they did was to their credit. They’ve been very resilient in how they play. When they get down, they know how to get back up.”
The Lady Bucs were hanging around in the third set at 12-12, but a 6-1 run started Grace toward a closing stretch in which it scored 38 of the match’s last 57 points. Culver said some serve-receive breakdowns led to three or four points in that tiebreaking stretch and took away some confidence.
“If we can get better at serve-receive, we could be a good team,” said Culver, whose Lady Bucs are now 12-9 and 3-1 in the league. “We need to rise to that.”
Middle Tennessee Statebound Alex Smith set the pace for the Lady Golden Eagles with 26 kills, three blocks and 40 digs. Maggie Long was Grace’s digs leader with 44. Autumn Parrott led with nine aces, and Summer Dean totaled 40 assists and contributed seven kills and 14 digs.
Meredith Balthrop sparked Boyd-Buchanan with seven kills, seven assists and eight digs. Madison Taylor matched Balthrop in digs. Other leaders were Mackenzie Mann with five blocks, Maddie Millwood with five aces and Jordan Furtney with 11 assists.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him at twitter.com@KelleySmiddie.