CHATTANOOGA – West Greene traveled to Chattanooga for a sectional round contest with Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts on Thursday and suffered a season-ending loss in a 3-0 sweep to the Lady Eagles.
The Lady Buffs found success at times, but were outmatched overall. CSLA’s heavy firepower on offense carried the Eagles to a State Tournament berth while West Greene saw its season end in the sectionals round for the third-consecutive season. West Greene fell behind after underperforming in set one, but battled back and played competitively in sets two and three before falling in the end.
“I thought the girls played really hard. This first set wasn’t so good of a set, but I thought they responded very well after that going back out for the second and third set. Obviously, some tough competition, but I thought that they handled it the best they could. We did a good job of seeing the floor and working together as a team. Some things just didn’t go our way,” West Greene Head Coach Raven Borie stated.
CSLA wasted little to no time asserting dominance from the start and reached a 6-0 lead early. Alabama commit Sydney Heisig tallied three kills in the run. Coach Borie called a timeout trailing 8-1. West Greene rallied for two points out of the timeout, but once CSLA found a new rhythm the deficit reached double digits, 15-4. The Lady Buffs trailed 19-5 before senior Deborah Julian gave West Greene new life and rallied late to score three-straight, but still trailed 21-8.
Sydney Heisig collected three kills in the closing stretch and helped CSLA take a 1-0 lead with a 25-10 final in set number one.
West Greene battled hard in the second set and led for half of the set before a game-changing play halfway through the set changed everything.
Before reaching that point, Journey Lamons and Carleigh Williams started with a block and a kill and put West Greene ahead 3-1. CSLA tied it 4-4 before Lamons collected a pair of kills and regained the lead. Morgan Moody and Aleea Aiken added kills and helped maintain the lead. Deborah Julian tied it, 10-10, with a kill and Williams and Lamons both added points to keep it knotted again at 13-13.
That’s when everything seemed to change. A high shot by CSLA nearly reached the rafters and landed on one of the raised basketball goals high above the field of play. It stayed on it for a couple of seconds before rolling off and back into play. The Lady Eagles eventually played it back into play and won the point to the dismay of West Greene’s fans. But according to the official meeting pregame, the goal was said to be in play and the point was not debated nor discussed and was correctly judged.
“I know the fans got a little wild on that one, but they had said in our meeting that it was treated as a part of the ceiling and we knew that it was allowed. But I think that sometimes when little things like that happen it can really affect us and our mindset,” Coach Borie explained.
CSLA won three-straight from the start of that play and took all the momentum away from West Greene. Coach Borie called a timeout trailing 16-13. The lead soon reached 18-13 and the Lady Eagles won five-straight after the play in question. Journey Lamons ended the run with a quick dump over the net, but couldn’t ever get a run started. As she did in the first set, Deborah Julian showed up late with a big block at the net and kept the deficit at four, 22-18.
The Lady Buffs couldn’t translate any kills or points to create any runs and fell behind 2-0 after a 25-19 loss in set two.
West Greene struggled to find any offense again in the third set and fell behind 10-5 before calling a timeout. Deborah Julian exited the timeout with a kill and Carleigh Williams followed with a kill soon after to cut it to 11-8. The deficit sat at 14-10 before Sydney Heisig delivered a set-changing ace. CSLA won a marathon of a rally next and the Lady Eagles took full control after.
Chloe Chapman delivered an ace, Marisa Green scored a point, and Zaniyah Beasley’s kill helped CSLA extend the lead to 20-12.
With time running out again West Greene failed to find any momentum to string together a run or a comeback attempt and watched the season come to an end once the home side of the scoreboard reached 25.
West Greene lost the third set, 25-16, and suffered a season-ending loss to CSLA on the road in the Class 1A Sectionals.
Seniors Katelyn Begines, Emma Gray, Deborah Julian, and Madi Evans leave the program with three-consecutive trips to the sectionals round.
Coach Raven Borie ended the afternoon speaking about how important this year’s senior class was to the West Greene Volleyball program.
“They’ve done a tremendous job at just really keeping the field together in a positive way. I think they’ve left a good impact on our players as to what being a good teammate looks like. They’ve done it three years in-a-row, yeah, we’ve not got where we want to get, but they’ve helped us where I think we’re going to get. And that’s something for them to take away and be proud of as they leave this program as seniors.”
