BY BRYCE PHILLIPS

STAR STAFF

bryce.phillips@elizabethton.com

The Lady Cyclones found their rhythm Thursday night as they topped Three Rivers Conference foe Sullivan North.

Elizabethton (9-7, 3-3) defeated the Lady Raiders (4-8, 3-3) in three straight sets — 25- 18, 25-23, 25-23.

The last time the two teams met, the Lady Raiders came away victorious, winning 4-1.

With the Lady Cyclones winning in the three straight games, they were able to move ahead of the Lady Raider into to third place. With their big winThursday night, the Lady Cyclones are now on a four-game winning streak. With their momentum rolling, EHS head coach Leslee Bradley is happy about what she is seeing from the her squad.

“Over at their (Sullivan North) place, we made a lot of errors on third balls,” she said. “Tonight we made way better choices with the ball. We were able to drastically turn it around. . . We are definitely getting more consistent and are able to read the game better.”

The Lady Cyclones were firing shots that landed inside the lines consistently. This showed in the stats, with Sarah Slagle (six kills) Rikki Wagner (five kills), and Madyson Smith (five kills) all blasting the Lady Raiders from the net.

“Our setter do a great job of making decisions, and we like to mix our offense up,” Bradley said. “Most teams like to use one hitter all night long, but we like to use multiple girls to keep the defense guessing through out the game.”

Defensively, Cyclones’ Chloe Hambrick and Mary Beth Biggs led the way as both finished the night with 16 digs. Slagle was able to toss in 12 digs herself.

“They really anchor us in the middle back position,” Bradley said. “They are all three very good at reading how the ball is coming. They also do a good job of not only making contact during the digs, but also putting the ball up into play.”

Lady Cyclones’ Madyson Smith led in serving, posting three aces during the match, which is impressive considering how good Sullivan North’s defensive play is, coach Bradley said.

“North is a very scrappy team,” Bradley said. “They are a fundamentally very sound passing team, so to have aces against them means you were putting the ball into a good spot.”

On the Lady Raiders side of the net, Erin Schwartz led in kills with 11 as her teammate Kaitlyn Vaughn followed her up with 10. Defensively, Schawartz led again with 16 digs, while Payton Vaughn recorded 15.

Next up for the Lady Cyclones will be play in the Rocky Top Classic in Gatlinburg today and Saturday. On Tuesday, the Lady Cyclones will face off with conference front runner Sullivan South Tuesday , before taking on Sullivan East on Thursday.

“We are going to work this weekend on improving our consistency before we play South and East next week,” Bradley said.