Lady Cyclones sweep Chuckey-Doak; advance to conference championship, region tournament

Published 11:03 am Wednesday, October 4, 2017

The Lady Cyclones were firing on all cylinders Tuesday as they rolled past Chuckey-Doak, 3-0, during the District 1-2A tournament at Sullivan South High School Tuesday.

The win moves Elizabethton to the conference championship and buys them a berth into the Region 1-2A tournament for the third year in a row.

“Yesterday, we still won but didn’t play as hard as we could of,” said EHS senior Emilee Nanney. “Today, we just came in wanting to play some of the best volleyball we have all year and it really paid off.”

In game one, the Lady Cyclones won 25-17 after a kill from senior Cassidee Ray gave Elizabethton a shot at a game point.

Game two would see things tie up five times as the teams battled into the high 20s. Elizabethton scooted to a 4-0 lead in the game before the Lady Black Knights forced things to a 7-7 tie. Back-to-back kills from EHS’s Nanney and Morgan Smith would push the Lady Cyclones out ahead 11-8. Not too long after, a kill from Ray and an ace from Smith gave the Lady Cyclones a 16-14 lead. Elizabethton slowly worked out to a 23-19 advantage, but the Lady Black Knights were not done as they fought to a 24-24 tie. A kill from Elizabethton’s Hannah Boster would give EHS a 26-25 lead before the game tied up at 26-all. EHS held on for a 28-26 victory after a kill from Ray made it 27-26.

“They really battled in that second set,” said EHS head coach Leslee Bradley. “We made some mistakes there at the end that weren’t too good. Chuckey-Doak brought it to us. We had to fight for that one, and that was huge to pull that one out.”

The Lady Cyclones took off and didn’t look back in the final game. Behind nine-straight serves from EHS senior Mary Beth Biggs, Elizabethton took an 11-3 lead. Kills from Elizabethon’s Sydney Goodsell and Brittany Kitchens moved EHS out to a 13-5 edge. Ray found holes in the Chuckey-Doak defense as she tapped two over for back-to-back points to give her team a 19-9 lead. Chuckey-Doak pulled the final game to 24-19 before EHS held on 25-19.

Ray led the Lady Cyclones with 11 kills while Goodsell followed up with nine. Smith had seven kills and Nanney finished with five.

Biggs finished the contest with 30 digs while Goodsell recorded 22.

Smith had four aces on the night.

Thursday evening, the Lady Cyclones will face Sullivan South in the conference championship. South topped Sullivan East 3-0 Tuesday.

“All the pressure is on their shoulders,” said Bradley about South. “We just have to come here and play another fun night of volleyball. This group of girls love each other and love playing volleyball, so Thursday night is going to be fun.”