BLUFF CITY – One never knows what to expect once postseason play begins, and the unexpected happened more than once on Tuesday afternoon in the District 1-AA Volleyball Tournament at Sullivan East.
No. 1 seeded Greeneville and No. 2 seeded Chuckey-Doak both suffered upset losses in the quarterfinals and had to face off in a win-or-go-home elimination game in the nightcap.
Chuckey-Doak ended Greeneville’s season by winning a four-set match, 3-1 (29-27, 25-11, 18-25, 25-11) in the elimination side of the bracket.
The Lady Black Knights used every ounce of energy they had and played nine-straight sets in a four-and-a-half hour time span between their back-to-back games in the winner’s and loser’s bracket. There was no time to rest and it wasn’t an option.
“Very, very proud of the girls and their effort and energy because not many teams can play volleyball for four-and-a-half hours and then pull off a win like that. They really gave me everything they had and at the end of the day they knew that they were fighting for their season. They had to want it and they went out there and executed,” Chuckey-Doak’s coach Marissa Snapp said.
For Greeneville, it was an end nobody saw coming. Nobody expects the No. 1 seed to fall in back-to-back games to begin a district tournament, but when it’s not your day, it’s not your day.
Greeneville looked to be trending in the right direction to begin set one by taking a 4-0 lead. Jayden Myers helped bring life to Chuckey-Doak with a block and a kill to cut it to 4-3 before Addyson Pruitt tied it 4-4 with an ace.
Kinley McCaslin put Greeneville back ahead, but Chuckey-Doak was quick to tie it at 6-6. The Lady Devils then scored five-straight to take an 11-6 lead. McCaslin and Leah Ford scored two points each and Julia Woolsey provided an ace.
Chuckey-Doak started slowly chipping away at the lead with multiple kills from Belle Karriker.
Her performance on the hardwood was key in Chuckey-Doak’s success on Tuesday. “She was so huge, like literally, and in the game. She’s just huge and she knows how to move on that front row,” Snapp stated.
Each time Greeneville gained a point, Karriker was there to negate it on the next volley. Back-to-back kills from Jacey Taylor tied the score at 16-16. Ford then scored back-to-back points and helped Greeneville go on a five-point swing to take a 21-16 lead.
It looked as if Greeneville would gain the upper hand with a first-set win and use Chuckey-Doak’s fatigue to their advantage, but that was not the case. Chuckey-Doak scored four-straight capped by a Jayden Myers block. McCaslin and Gabby Atchison scored back-to-back to make it 23-20, but three-straight by Chuckey-Doak tied things at 23-23.
For the next nine volleys neither team could gain the two-point advantage they needed to win the set. Greeneville went up 24-23 after a bad serve, but Karriker’s kill tied it. Karriker came up clutch again with a block, but McCaslin tied it on the next volley. Brylee Tullock gained momentum with a spike, but the next serve flew out of bounds. Tullock got a tip over the net to fall down safely after a marathon round, but Taylor wouldn’t let them have the win and delivered a spike next. T
he Lady Knights won three-in-a-row when they needed to the most and scored on a Karriker ace after Taylor’s spike, and another spike by Taylor finished the set off with a 29-27 win for Chuckey-Doak.
That momentum carried into the second set and started with Chuckey-Doak winning the first five. Tullock got a kill to fall to pause the run, but it continued with a kill from Taylor and an ace from Pruitt.
The lead grew to 15-5 before Greeneville strung together three-straight ending with a kill from Tullock.
From there it was all Chuckey-Doak for the rest of the set. They went on a 10-3 run to end the second and carried out a 25-11 win.
Another strong start by Chuckey-Doak to start the third set looked like the match may end in a sweep, but Greeneville stayed alive and controlled the rest of the third set.
Karriker’s pair of kills helped create a 3-1 advantage for the Lady Knights early, but Greeneville won four of the next five to take the lead. Chuckey-Doak led 7-5 before six-straight from Greeneville gave the Lady Devils a lead that lasted until the end of the set. McCaslin and Tullock scored the majority of their offense in the third set and helped lift them to a 25-18 win.
Unfortunately for them, that’s the last lead they would hold all year.
Chuckey-Doak came out of the gates white hot in the fourth set and gained a 7-0 lead that took the wind out of Greeneville’s sails. Back-to-back aces from Macy Church and excellent service in the fourth set as a whole helped the Lady Knights tremendously. “She absolutely killed it back there,” Coach Snapp bragged.
Myers and Taylor landed kills and helped boost the lead to 16-6. Another ace by Church started signaling the end with an 11-point advantage. Greeneville called a timeout to talk things out.
Taylor kept swinging for the fences with no mercy and provided three big kills down the stretch to push Chuckey-Doak to a 25-11 victory and keep their season alive.
Chuckey-Doak turns around to play the loser of Elizabethton and Sullivan East on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in another win-or-go-home elimination game with even more at stake. The winner not only advances to Thursday’s championship, but also grants themselves a trip to next week’s Region 1-2A Tournament.
“Maintaining that level of energy and every single point you absolutely give 110% because you never know if it’s going to be the last point that you get to play or the last time that you’re going to get to play with these girls,” Snapp said.
Elizabethton 3, Chuckey-Doak 2
Chuckey-Doak almost didn’t need to play back-to-back and went through a five-set thriller with Elizabethton and fell just short in the fifth set. Betsy took the first set 25-20 and Chuckey-Doak took the second 25-19. Elizabethton flipped the score and took the third 25-19 before the Lady Knights forced the fifth set with a gutsy 25-20 win. The Lady Cyclones pulled ahead 4-0 to start the fifth and it was the difference maker as they took the fifth set 15-9.
Sullivan East 3, Greeneville 0
Greeneville suffered a three-set sweep to Sullivan East to start Tuesday’s action. The Lady Devils fell behind early in the first and couldn’t gain any sort of momentum to help mount a comeback and lost 25-17. The second set was there for the taking, but Sullivan East did manage to find the momentum that Greeneville couldn’t and erased a six-point deficit to win the second set. The Lady Patriots scored 11 out of the last 17 and won it 26-24. Greeneville dropped another close set in the third, 25-23, that sent them to the loser’s bracket where their season came to a disappointing end against Chuckey-Doak.
