The West Greene volleyball team had to hold off a late charge from Chuckey-Doak on Monday afternoon, but they managed to escape with a 3-2 (25-19, 25-12, 24-26, 22-25, 15-13) win over their cross-county rivals on the first day of the season.
“We definitely were not the most consistent throughout the game, and we have some things we have to work on, but I am proud of them for buckling down and pulling through,” West Greene coach Raven Borie said. “It was too close for comfort, especially after being up 2-0. They knew that they had to be more focused in the fifth set. Chuckey-Doak showed they wanted this pretty bad, but these girls figured out how to bring it together in the end.”
Borie is hopeful that the challenging rivalry game in the season opener will help her team hit the ground running as they look to advance deep into the postseason once again.
“Chuckey-Doak is a good team and there is the rivalry factor any time you play a county team,” Borie said. “Some people questioned playing this game out of the gate, but I wanted to be challenged right now. If you are going to do well later you have to be challenged early on to find out where you need to be better.”
The Lady Buffaloes took the first two sets on Monday, but then the Lady Black Knights rallied to even the score at 2-2. That set up a winner-take-all fifth set that had eight ties.
West Greene took its first lead of the final frame at 12-11after Addy Peters and Journey Lamons came up with back-to-back kills.
A free-ball error evened the score again, but West Greene regained the lead at 13-12 when Cassidy Hill rose up from the back row. Peters followed with a kill from the left side that gave West Greene its first two-point edge at 14-12. From there West Greene captured the decisive 15-13 win.
“15-13 in the fifth set is a tough way to go down, but not many teams can come back from getting their butts handed to them in the first two sets to force a fifth set,” Chuckey-Doak coach Marissa Snapp said. “I’m extremely proud of these girls for stepping up, our back row made a huge turnaround. Our serves started actually going inside the court. But we can’t wait two sets to play volleyball.”
Peters came to life late in the fifth set and landed three kills in West Greene’s final five points, and Borie was glad to see she saved some of her best swings for the end of the night.
“I was really proud of her there, because its easy in those situations to play safe and not swing hard. She was confident in taking those swings and that was good to see,” Borie said.
The day began with Chuckey-Doak jumping in front 8-1 in the first set with Jayden Myers scoring on a kill and a tip while Jacey Taylor landed an ace.
Out of a timeout West Greene took advantage of three-straight Lady Black Knight errors and when Kenzie Morrison landed a shot the Lady Buffs evened the score at 11-11.
Peters then got a pair of aces to fall to the hardwood and West Greene’s lead reached 18-12. West Greene’s biggest lead came at 22-13 after block by Hill. Addy Pruitt tried to serve Chuckey-Doak back into the contest, but the Lady Buffs held on for the 25-19 win.
The second set was all West Greene as it started by taking a 5-0 lead and never looked back on the way to a 25-12 win. Hill had two kills and a tip in the early going for West Greene, and Lamons had two kills and two aces in the set.
After falling behind 8-1 in the first set West Greene outscored Chuckey-Doak 49-23 to the finish of the second set.
Chuckey-Doak regrouped and started the third set with two aces from Pruitt for a 4-1 lead.
West Greene took the lead at 5-4 after Aubree Everett saved a volley with a diving dig. Taylor followed it with a hammering kills for the Lady Black Knights to tie things again. The set was tied five more times before two errors gave Chuckey-Doak a 12-10 lead.
A block by Peters gave West Greene its final lead of the third set at 16-15, but three straight errors put Chuckey-Doak back on top at 18-16. Errors by Chuckey-Doak drew the Lady Buffs closer and after a block from Hill and a kill from Lamons West Greene tied things at 23-23.
With the match on the line Chuckey-Doak finished with a block from Isabelle Karricker and an ace from Taylor to capture a 26-24 win.
The fourth set stayed close throughout as well with four ties until back-to-back aces by Aleea Aiken put West Greene in front 11-8.
Taylor brought Chuckey-Doak back to even at 11-11 with a powerful kill. The Lady Knights’ sophomore added two more kills as the lead grew to 19-14.
In the closing stretch Taylor smashed three kills from the back row as part of her 18-kill day and Chuckey-Doak again extend the match with a 25-22 win.
“That was great to see out of Jacey. It’s great to see her step into that leadership position. Having her out there setting the example is so important. She wants the ball and she wants to make the next play,” Snapp said.
Lamons led the Lady Buffaloes with 14 kills and three aces. Hill had eight kills, Peters had six kills, two blocks and three aces, and Morgan Moody had four kills and three aces.
Aiken had 12 assists, 12 digs, three kills and three aces. Baylee Lowe had 18 assists and three aces.
After a gutsy win over Chuckey-Doak, hear from Head Coach Raven Borie on how the Lady Buffs survived with a 3-2 win. pic.twitter.com/yoP33e9Kpv
— GreeneSportsZone (@GSportsZone) August 19, 2025
