Cleveland's Regan Fulller (10) tries to score against the tenacious defense provided by Farragut's Shelby Rawls (9) and Anne Abernathy (11) during the state volleyball match at Middle Tennessee State University on Thursday. Farragut beat the Lady Blue Raiders 3-0.
photo by Dennis Norwood
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Thursday’s elimination match between Cleveland and powerful Farragut began and crumbled in the first few points.
Cleveland got an early 3-0 lead.
Farragut went on a 23-3 run and demolished the Lady Blue Raiders 3-0 in a lopsided that sent Cleveland home knowing how far it still has to go to compete with the elite Class 3A volleyball teams in the state.
“We scored those first three points and then quickly realized we had to fight a lot harder against Farragut,” Cleveland sophomore Anna Renshaw said. “They’re really a good team.”
Senior setter Lauren Lee was even more direct in addressing the skill differences between the two state tournament squads.
“They’re a great team that never let up, just amazing,” Lee said. “In the first (set), we didn’t really know what to expect. We quickly realized we couldn’t handle them.”
Farragut (44-5), once it found a groove on offense and defense, smothered every aspect of the Lady Raiders’ game plan.
After winning Set 1 by 25-7, a blow that buckled Cleveland’s collective knees, the Lady Admirals steamrolled through the rest of the match by scores of 25-10 and 25-16.
The matched lasted 62 minutes. It was literally over much sooner.
“Down deep,” Cleveland coach Patricia Powers said, “we knew something like this could happen in at least one set. We had a reality check for how well we had to play against a team like Farragut.”
Addressing her players, Flowers asked, “What could we have used to our advantage against Farragut?”
No hands were raised.
“If we could have played all three sets like the third, it could have been,” as the coach’s voice tailed off.
The bottom line on Thursday was this: Cleveland, despite a program-best list of accomplishments this season, was ill-suited to compete with the Lady Admirals.
“We really fought in that last set,” coach Flower said. “But we have to become a better blocking team and play better defense. Farragut is a better team than we are. They’re scrappy, they block and they explode. We’ve improved so much and the way we fought in that last game enables us to go home with our heads up.”
Aside from the early and short-lived 3-0 lead, Cleveland (39-15) failed to grab another positive point spread until early in the third set. The Lady Raiders’ last advantage was 11-10.
Farragut then outscored Cleveland 15-6 to close out the match.
In Set 2, another strong Farragut start left Cleveland in its dust. The Lady Admirals broke into a 15-4 lead and the Lady Blue Raiders’ body language looked like they were down by 11 points.
Farragut stretched the margin to 20-7 and scored five of the final eight points to take a 2-0 set lead.
With Farragut using a mix of starters with a few reserves, Cleveland hung around, but with an 11-10 advantage, the Lady Raiders were outscored 15-6 down the stretch and that punched their ticket home.
“We’ve proven that we can beat Ooltewah (in District 5-3A) and that was one of our goals,” the Cleveland coach said. “The next step is to start taking a set from teams like Farragut.”
Cleveland Stats vs. Farragut
Anna Renshaw – 5 digs, 5 kills, 6 assists
Emma Flowers – 7 digs, 6 kills, 3 assists
Hannah Longley – 3 digs
Jessi Towe – 1 dig
Lauren Lee – 22 digs, 1 assists
Lydia Martin – 1 kill
Regan Fuller – 1 dig
Sammie Kate Eason – 6 digs
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)