On Monday night the Greeneville volleyball team showed that it is taking the right steps as the postseason approaches after they picked up 3-0 sweep of South Greene, 25-22, 25-19, 25-18.
The win comes less than a month after the Lady Greene Devils opened the season with a 3-1 loss to the Lady Rebels.
“I’m very proud of the way we played tonight,” Greeneville coach Sara Aiken Said. “They cleaned up a lot of things we’ve asked them to work on, but most importantly I’m proud that played for each other and played intentionally. We have gotten better at starting aggressive instead of waiting to build that. That’s a beautiful thing in this sport. Then we have focused on our finishing touches and our attackers blew our numbers away for the season. They did such a good job finishing.”
Greeneville started fast on Monday and quickly found itself leading 7-1 in the opening set. With Allison Hayes serving Katie Johnson put down a pair of kills from the left side while Gabby Atchison found her groove with a kill and a block in the middle.
The big plays early set the tone for both Atchison and Aubree Honeycutt in the middle of the front row as they dominated from the center of the formation for much of the evening.
“Our blocking has come a long way, and our middle attack has gotten so much better,” Aiken said. “That was incredibly important tonight. We have worked a lot on creating space at the net and allowing then to use that length, and it was really fun to watch tonight.”
The Lady Devils lead grew to 11-3 when Allison Hayes made a diving pancake save that led to Greeneville scoring on a free ball. That was not the only big play Greeneville’s setter made on Monday as she controlled the game at times by directing the Lady Devils’ attack while adding to it with a handful of artful dumps that South Greene never seemed ready for.
“She was great tonight,” Aiken said. “I think all of her attacks may have resulted in points, whether it landed or caused some chaos. That’s something I love about multi-sport athletes. She’s played a lot of basketball and I think that helps her see the court, and that’s a really valuable skill she has.”
With Jaelyn Fillers serving South Greene found some life and began to inch closer. Kinley McCaslin rose up for three powerful kills, and then Fillers dropped in an ace to tie things at 13-13.
Johnson broke the steak with a left-side kill for Greeneville, and when Natalie Knight crushed a ball from the right side the Lady Devils were back in front 20-16.
South Greene tied things again at 21-21 when McCaslin found a big hole in the defense and tipped a ball to the sideline.
Greeneville regained the lead with two more kills from Johnson and finished the 25-22 win on a block by Honeycutt.
South Grene took a 3-1 lead in the second set after Riley Southerland scored on a block and Emma Padgett landed kill.
Greeneville came back and tied things at 4-4 when Honeycutt scored on a tip.
The set was tied four more times until Willow Aiken landed an ace to put Greeneville in front 10-9. Riley Ireland followed with a kill that went from one pole to the other. Honeycutt scored on a block and then a kill from the middle as the lead grew to 13-9.
South Greene closed the gap to 17-16 on a kill from McCaslin, but the Lady Rebels followed with a pair of errors. Greeneville’s lead grew to 22-16 after Hayes snuck over a dump and Atchison followed with a block and a kill.
The Lady Devils won the set 25-19.
In the third set Greeneville found an early 8-5 lead after Leah Ford came up with a kill from the left side and Ireland got an ace to land. An ace by Hayes pushed the lead to 12-7.
South Greene got as close as 15-13 when McCaslin and Padgett powered down consecutive kills.
Greeneville closed strong with Ford scoring on a kill and a push to the deep corner, Johnson scoring on a block, Atchison blocking two, and Hayes sneaking over a dump.
Greeneville will be back in action on Tuesday in a big District 1-AA match against Chuckey-Doak. South Greene will play at Happy Valley on Thursday.
