Elizabethton Invitational plays out Saturday
Published 11:12 pm Monday, August 26, 2019
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BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR SPORTS EDITOR
The Elizabethton Lady Cyclones played host to their annual volleyball tournament on Saturday and while the Lady Cyclones dropped their match to Sullivan East in the tournament semifinals, Coach Leslee Bradley’s team ran off a 4-1 day as East and Anderson County battled for the championship.
Teams that included Volunteer, Sullivan East, West Greene, Anderson County, Morristown East, Sullivan North, and others gathered for the all-day tournament with two matches going at a time as the teams worked through the round-robin play and into the elimination rounds.
Elizabethton defeated West Greene in two games 25-11 and 25-13 and followed that up with a victory over Sullivan North 25-14 and 25-10.
The Lady Cyclones then faced off with Morristown East winning 25-17 and 25-23 in their closest game of the tournament to that point. The Lady Cyclones had been wanting to see how they matched up with Greeneville after having dropped their regional contest to the Lady Greene Devils to end their 2018 campaign.
‘Betsy came out and took care of business defeating the Lady Greene Devils 27-25 and 25-15 to advance to the semi-final contest with the Lady Patriots from East whom the Lady Cyclones had already beaten earlier in the week.
The Lady Patriots got a measure of revenge with a 26-24 and 25-19 win that set up their showdown with the Lady Mavericks for the championship.
Senior Morgan Smith had a solid tournament finishing with 23 kills, 33 assists, and 22 defensive digs. Brittany Kitchens and Hannah Boster each collected 21 kills on the day with Kitchens adding 30 digs as well.
Deanna Hull had a huge day from the defensive side of the net with 38 digs. Kaitlin Bailey and Whitley Maupin added 15 and 12 kills respectively while Josie Lyons added 38 assist and 16 digs.
For the day, the Lady Cyclones registered 103 kills and 173 defensive digs in their five games of work. Elizabethton pasted the court for 42 serving aces with Mattie Davis collecting 12 of those aces.
The Lady Cyclones get back into conference on Tuesday when they host the Unicoi County Blue Devils inside John L. Treadway Gymnasium.
