Chuckey-Doak Settles For 2nd In District 1-AA Tournament

BLUFF CITY – The Chuckey-Doak volleyball team could not keep up with Sullivan East on Thursday night in the District 1-AA Tournament championship game and fell 3-1, 25-15, 25-14, 19-25, 25-7.

“Tonight didn’t go how we planned, but at the end of the day I’m still proud of them,” Chuckey-Doak coach Marissa Snapp said. “They went out there, and they fought. That’s all I can ask. Today didn’t go how we wanted, but we extended our season. Now we need to go into next week with a clean slate and play better than today.”

The loss does not end the Lady Black Knights’ season, and they will be back at it on Monday at Sullivan East for the Region 1-AA Tournament. It will be the first time since 2016 that Chuckey-Doak has played in the region tournament. The Lady Knights will take on District 2-AA champion Volunteer. In the other semifinal Sullivan East will play Grainger.

“We have to be able to keep our intensity level up going into next week,” Snapp said. “It’s not easy to play a long, hard week of games and continue that into the next week. We have to be as close to perfect as possible in practice. We have to find the corners and the open spots, and we have to keep moving the ball along the front line.”

Chuckey-Doak got Thursday’s action started the right way with Chloe Kirkpatrick serving up an ace and Bell Karriker slamming one from the middle.

The early going saw five ties until the Lady Patriots went in front for good at 8-7 when Audrey Easley came up with a kill.

The lead began to grow with Bella Pickering serving, and when Chuckey-Doak put a free ball into the net Sullivan East led 15-9.

Two more Chuckey-Doak miscues and a hard swing from Sophie Johnson put the Lady Patriots on top 18-10.

In the fishing stretch Chuckey-Doak’s Jacey Taylor landed a pair of kills and Addy Pruitt put down another from the right side, but it was not enough to dent the lead as Sullivan East went in front 1-0 with a 25-15 win.

In the second set Chuckey-Doak got early kills from Karriker and Taylor, but again the Lady Patriots did not let the lead last long.

Sullivan East’s defense made it hard for Chuckey-Doak’s attack to land anything on Thursday, keeping volleys alive until the Lady Knights made a mistake.

The Lady Patriots took the lead at 6-5 on a block by Lilly Mower.

Chuckey-Doak closed the gap to 9-8 when Jayden Myers got a tip over the block, but then a trio of errors had East in front 13-8.

Consecutive aces from Natalie Holt put the Lady Patriots in front 19-12. From there East got an ace from Jillian Fisher, but more importantly their defense kept finding ways to keep the ball off the floor. The result was four errors by Chuckey-Doak over the final five points in a 25-14 loss.

In the third set Chuckey-Doak began to find the right swings and went in front at 5-4 when Karriker came up with a big block. Kirkpatrick got two aces to fall between the Lady Patriots as the lead grew to 9-5.

Carlene Bishop pushed a ball laterally down the net, and then East’s Makayla Moore missed a kill attempt to give Chuckey-Doak its biggest lead at 19-12.

Karriker pounded a pair of kills from the middle and Taylor extended the contest when she scored on a tip that gave Chuckey-Doak a 25-19 win.

The fourth set was all Sullivan East, and that started with Easley serving the Lady Patriots to a 9-0 lead.

After three kills from Moore the Lady Patriots led 18-4. Easley finished out the 25-7 win with two more aces for East.