Over the weekend, the Lady Cyclones volleyball team traveled over to Sevierville where they compete in the Rocky Top Classic.
While there, the Lady Cyclones battled into the gold bracket for the first time while finishing the tournament with a 4-2 mark.
“We came in second in our pool the first day, and we played in the gold tournament and won the first round,” said Elizabethton head coach Leslee Bradley. “They had like a hundred teams down there. We played some really good volleyball. We saw some teams from Kentucky and Georgia and saw a lot of different competition. We are doing really good with the type of volleyball we are playing right now. We just have to do it on a more consistent basis.”
Tuesday evening, the Lady Cyclones traveled over to Sullivan East for a key conference contest. At this point in the season, the Sullivan South Lady Rebels are looking like a favorite to take first place in the league. Currently, the Lady Cyclones, East and Sullivan Central are vying for a second place finish, and an Elizabethton win over East Tuesday evening was crucial for the Lady Cyclones to have a chance at a second-place finish while also giving them a shot at first. For results from Tuesday’s evening game at East pick up Thursday’s Elizabethton Star.
“We control our own destiny right now in the conference,” said Bradley. “South, nobody had figured out how to knock them off of that pedestal. We are going to keep trying to do that. At this point, though, it is about lining ourselves up for the best possible position we can have in the district tournament. If we can take care of business with all of the conference teams that we have got the second time around, we put ourselves in a good position. We have to prepare ourselves mentally for those challenges.”
Monday evening, the Lady Cyclones hosted Science Hill to John Treadway Gym. The Hilltoppers, despite Elizabethton playing things close, took a 3-0 win (25-21, 25-18, 25-19). Elizabethton’s Hannah Boster had nine kills while teammates Morgan Smith and Sydney Goodsell had five each. Lady Cyclone Deanne Hull finished with three aces.
“It is a challenge to go against Science Hill,” said Bradley. “They, in general, have more players to choose from and some more court experience out there. There were times we just had inexperience hurt us here and there.
“We played tough,” added Bradley. “We had a lot of really strong rallies in there. The few lapses that we had were enough to be the difference in the match.”