The Greeneville volleyball team did not begin District 1-AA play the way it wanted on Thursday, falling 3-0 (25-19, 25-20, 25-15) to Elizabethton in front of its home crowd.
“We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do mentally and a lot of work to do on discipline,” Greeneville coach Sara Aiken said. “Specifically, we have to be better blocking and serving. That lack of discipline reared its head when they put pressure on us tonight. But we know what we have to work on, and that is what we are going to focus on tomorrow.”
It is only the first week of the season, but now the Lady Devils are in a hole in the league standings in what is expected to be a deep a challenging district that also includes state tournament teams Sullivan East and Chuckey-Doak. Greeneville has the talent to dig out of it, but Aiken feels like she needs the group to focus more on execution to reach their goals.
“This is a really athletic team, and I think sometimes you can rely too much on athleticism,” Aiken said. “But we have to sure up our discipline on the block and our focus. This group is really hard on themselves, and I think playing more free and gracious is really important. We can’t take any game for granted, and if we can appreciate every time we take the floor then maybe won’t make those simple mistakes.”
The first set started with the Lady Greene Devils taking control and they moved in front in 5-3 after Natalie Knight came up with a kill and an ace.
With Riley Ireland serving that lead grew to 8-4. Katie Johnson scored on a tip and Knight landed another kill from the left side as the lead moved to 11-8, but then errors began to mount against Greeneville.
Three straight errors and a back-row kill from Elizabethton’s Mahala Nave put the Lady Cyclones in front 12-11.
Ireland landed a kill to knot things at 13-13, but Elizabethton began to pull away after that. The Lady Cyclones got kills from Jasy Shell, Libby Tipton and Nave as the lead grew to 22-17.
Greeneville answered with slams from Johnson and Gabby Atchison, but Elizabethton stayed in front for the 25-19 win.
Thirteen of Elizabethton’s points in the set came from Greeneville errors, and throughout the night giveaways doomed the Lady Devils.
“It’s extremely frustrating to give away that many point. But they are frustrated with themselves too. Part of the mental battle is to not keep spiraling down when things go wrong,” Aiken said.
In the second set three missed swings from Greeneville and a kill by Maddie Moore gave Elizabethton a quick 4-0 lead. Two more miscues allowed the lead to increase to 7-2.
Late in the set Greeneville began to find more success with softer swings. Ireland and Johnson scored on consecutive tips before Aubree Honeycut used her left hand to find the hole in the defense while narrowing the deficit to 21-18.
In the closing stretch Elizabethton got good swings from Nave and Shell to beat the back row on the way to a 25-20 win.
The third set started with Honeycutt scoring on a block and Knight powering home a slam from the left side, but the teams traded points to a 9-9 tie.
Greeneville took the lead on an ace by Johnson and the advantage grew to 12-9 when Honeycut dropped a tip around the block.
The serve returned to the Lady Cyclones and Nave beat the Lady Devils with a pair of aces.
Greeneville got back to within one point at 16-15 when Willow Aiken dropped an ace on the back line. Elizabethton then scored the final 10 points of the night and completed the sweep with a 25-15 win.
