MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Friday was a magical day for the Baylor Lady Red Raider volleyball team.
Facing arch-rival Father Ryan for the fourth time this season, Baylor evened the score at 2-2, but the last time at Siegel High School was the sweetest as it came in the championship match of the D-II Class AA state tournament.
Father Ryan had a huge group of students in its cheering section and they made plenty of noise, but they were all deathly quiet in the third and fourth sets when Baylor clearly had the upper hand.
Baylor had lost to these same Purple Irish in its opening match on Wednesday, but the Lady Raiders were up for the challenge as they prevailed in the last one, winning three of the four sets by scores of 25-23, 24-26, 25-21 and 25-15.
It was the first state title for Baylor coach Sarah Lail, who has been the head coach for the past six years. It was also the first since 1998 when current assistant coach Kurt Emmanuel was the head coach.
Needless to say, after coming up short on too many occasions in the state final, Baylor finally got the monkey off its back with an outstanding performance against the Purple Irish.
Coach Lail was simply thrilled with the outcome.
“I couldn’t be happier,” she said as she wiped tears of joy from her cheeks.
“What a great match these girls just played as they were calm and confident from the start. We used a new rotation and it worked as I stayed up late last night trying to find our best advantage. I decided to go with one more focused on offense than defense.
“Gabby Gray was simply phenomenal today, but she always shows up big in the most important matches. She played well as always, but these are tears of joy. I’m so glad that these girls finally got to experience something like this,” Lail added.
Gray, the slender, six-foot sophomore, was on fire from the opening point. She finished the match with 24 kills and nine digs and was honored for her play with the MVP for the match.
“This feels great,” she said before the awards were distributed.
“We’ve worked so hard to get to this point and we finally put it all together. We just tried to stay focused on the main goal, but I just went all out today. We can be pretty unstoppable when we work together,” she smiled.
Junior Ashleigh Cook also played well as she finished with eight kills. This young lady has really blossomed this fall and played perhaps her best match of the year on Friday.
“It’s the best feeling in the world,” she began.
“We were so close last year, but we finally finished the job. This beats the heck out of finishing second,” she added.
Father Ryan coach Jinx Cockerham knew that Friday’s match would be another intense battle from the start.
“Today’s match certainly doesn’t define our season as we won some big tournaments before we got here. Anything can happen in a match like this, but we gave away too many unearned points and you can’t do that against a good team like Baylor,” she expressed later.
“I’m really disappointed with the outcome, but Baylor just outplayed us. We tried to correct the things we weren’t doing well, but it just didn’t work out today,” she added.
Baylor-Father Ryan matches are normally nip and tuck from start to finish. That was surely the case as each team won a set by two points. However, Baylor took charge in the third set and turned a 10-9 lead into one at 14-9 before Father Ryan called timeout.
The Purple Irish got to within three points on a couple of occasions, but the Lady Red Raiders kept the hammer down to win when a Ryan return sailed long.
Then in the fourth set with momentum clearly on Baylor’s side, the Lady Raiders bolted to a 6-2 lead before Ryan called timeout. The difference was 17-7 before the Purple Irish called another, but the hay was already in the barn and all of the Baylor folks were beginning to celebrate.
They all eruped in jubilation a few minutes later when Haven Bethune’s kill clinched the match and the state title for Baylor.
While Gray was the leader for Baylor, Bethune was equally impressive as she had a triple-double, finishing with 18 kills, 16 assists and 11 digs. Freshman Sarah Sumida played her usual outstanding match and finished with 34 assists and 19 digs.
Lauren Dorrell was the leader for Father Ryan with 19 kills and nine digs while teammate Maggie Mullins had 14 kills in her final match for the Lady Irish.
Baylor concludes its season at 43-9 while Father Ryan’s record is now 46-10.
BAYLOR STATS:
Jane Wilson – 5 kills, 1 dig, 4 blocks
Haven Bethune – 18 kills, 16 assists, 1 ace, 11 digs, 3 blocks
Sarah Sumida – 1 kill, 34 assists, 1 ace, 19 digs, 1 block\
Gabby Gray – 24 kills, 1 ace, 9 digs, 1 block
Ashleigh Cook – 8 kills, 2 assists, 2 aces, 1 dig, 1 block
Lexy Hellerstedt – 3 kills, 1 assist, 10 digs
Lily Turner – 5 assists, 1 ace, 22 digs.
FATHER RYAN STATS:
Maggie Mullins – 14 kills, 20 assists, 3 digs, 1 block\
Maxi Edwards – 1 kill, 1 block
Olivia Rolick – 7 kills, 1 ace, 11 digs, 1 block
Brooke Fuller – 22 assists, 3 aces, 12 digs
Lauren Dorrell – 19 kills, 1 assist, 1 ace, 9 digs
Gracie Larkin – 5 kills, 2 digs, 2 blocks
Paige Wigington – 34 digs
Brittany Butler – 3 digs
Ally Rector – 1 kill, 2 digs, 1 block.
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@comcast.net)