Chuckey-Doak walked into Jerome Woolsey Gymnasium on Monday afternoon and walked out in the end with a 3-1 victory (25-23, 22-25, 25-21, 25-19) over the homestanding North Greene Lady Huskies.
Greene County has been unpredictable on the volleyball court this season and Monday night was no different. The Lady Black Knights walked into enemy territory and overcame some adversity to claim a hard-fought win on the road.
Chuckey-Doak never trailed in the first set and the second set witnessed 10 ties and seven lead changes before going in North Greene’s favor.
The game was tied 1-1 when it looked like Chuckey-Doak would fall behind 2-1 with North Greene ahead 21-15 in the closing moments and holding all the momentum. Chuckey-Doak ended the match on a 10-0 run and never looked back and finished on top.
The match was one of the closest matches either team has played this season with six points being the largest margin between all four sets. Chuckey-Doak Head Coach Marissa Snapp explained how important last night’s contest was for the road ahead.
“I think it was so important to their mental game and their mentality that even when you’re down it doesn’t matter. You can come back from any deficit as long as you have that mindset of go big or go home basically,” Snapp said.
Chuckey-Doak began the game by winning the first set and never trailed the entire time. Kallie Dobson delivered the first kill of the set and capped off a 3-0 run to start. North Greene tied it 3-3 before Belle Karriker sent a spike crashing into the hardwood. Karriker was Chuckey-Doak’s top performer on Monday and finished with a game-high 16 kills and 10 blocks along with 2 aces.
Coach Snapp described how impactful Karriker’s performance was. “That just speaks to the player that she is and how consistent she is. She goes up there on the front row and she is a brick wall and she puts the ball down on the 10-foot line and then she comes back and she aces back here from behind the service line. It doesn’t matter what you put at her she just reaches out and she can pass the ball up and use her hands. I think she had assists, passes, hits, blocks, I think she had every single stat tonight.”
The Lady Knights went on a 7-0 run to create a sizable gap on the scoreboard highlighted by a Belle Karriker kill and Jessie Dayton ace. North Greene closed the gap with a 4-0 run led by a pair of aces from freshman Allie Cantwell. Jacey Taylor killed the run with a kill for the visiting Lady Knights. Both teams went back-and-forth with small runs and the score sat tied at 23-23 until Chuckey-Doak finished the set winning the last two via an attacking error on North Greene and a Hayleigh Seidl kill. Chuckey-Doak claimed the first set 25-23.
The second set was the most competitive of the night with 10 ties and 7 lead changes. Freshman Kallie Dobson began the second set with a kill. North Greene’s Josie Graham blocked a shot at the net and helped hand North Greene their first lead of the day with a 2-1 advantage. It would go back-and-forth until it was tied 19-19. A string of four-straight attacking errors by Chuckey-Doak helped North Greene gain the momentum. Josie Graham’s kill and another attacking error helped fend off a late rally and helped North Greene tie the set with a 25-22 win.
The third set was an interesting one. Confusion set in for the officials and Chuckey-Doak was said to be out of rotation. After a 5-minute delay, North Greene was rewarded with a point and the game resumed, but the fireworks weren’t over yet. North Greene led the entire way and held a 21-15 lead and looked to be on their way to a 2-1 lead. The Lady Black Knights turned everything upside down and finished the set winning 10-straight points and won 25-21 to lead the match 2-1.
A Macy Church dig helped save the set with Chuckey-Doak’s 18th point. A strong spike from Kinlea Estepp was received, but flew to the back line and libero Macy Church made a diving save that later resulted in a Belle Karriker kill. Kills from Chloe Kirkpatrick, Jacey Taylor, and Belle Karriker in the closing stretch made the win possible.
“That was vital. We had to have that. During that timeout we had to have a talk of just to reset. Just hit a hard reset. It doesn’t matter what the score is now it’s whoever gets to 25 first at the end of the day. So really just reminding them to clean up our side and just take that communication and that energy and that effort and leave everything out there on the court and they just found another gear. And once they found it they kept rolling and really pushed us into that fourth set,” Coach Snapp mentioned.
Chuckey-Doak’s momentum never died off and Karriker began with a kill for the Lady Knights. The Lady Knights went on a 21-7 run stretching from the third to fourth set. Karriker and Taylor continued making huge plays and helped stretch the lead to 16-11. North Greene trailed 19-13 and called a timeout and it helped for a moment with an ace from Addi Dean and four-straight points. Chuckey-Doak regained momentum and finished strong and raced to the finish line. Belle Karriker captained the Lady Knights to the finish and was productive in the final stages to help Chuckey-Doak win the fourth and final set 25-19.
Chuckey-Doak defeated North Greene 3-1 and have now won 8-straight over the Lady Huskies.
The Lady Knights travel to Greeneville for an important District 1-AA showdown with the Lady Devils on Tuesday night. The Lady Huskies travel to Hampton for a District 1-A matchup on Tuesday.
