The high school volleyball match at Soddy Daisy Monday night between the host Soddy Daisy Lady Trojans and the Chattanooga Christian Lady Chargers was not a district match and has no bearing whatsoever on regular-season standings, but it was one that CCS coach Sarah Stutheit wanted to win in a big, big way.
Her Lady Chargers made an incredible comeback after losing the first two sets, but they came up short as the Lady Trojans closed out the match with a volley that should have been included on ESPN Sports Center.
Soddy Daisy improved to 14-13 with the 3-2 win, taking the match by scores of 25-22, 25-19, 24-26, 15-25 and 17-15.
Stutheit graduated from Soddy Daisy in 2012 and was hoping to notch her first regular-season win over her alma mater. She was feeling pretty good before the match began as her CCS team had beaten Soddy Daisy just Saturday in the River City Rumble.
“Soddy Daisy came out with a lot of aggressiveness on that last point and we didn’t,” Stutheit said shortly after the emotional match ended.
“I was definitely pleased with the way we played in the third and fourth sets and at different moments in the others, but we didn’t play our match tonight. I thought we were quiet and slow and we came out complacent.
“I thought Libby did an excellent job of getting her girls in the position to want to win. We just didn’t have that ‘want to’ tonight,” she added.
Soddy Daisy coach Libby Peigen knew that her team made way too many unforced errors in that match on Saturday and her main focus for Monday was correcting some of those mistakes.
She was still somewhat frustrated following Monday’s match as her team had 30 unforced errors, but she was smiling big after they somehow found a way to pull this one out at the end.
“That was awesome,” she Peigen said after a post-match chat with her team in the Soddy Daisy dressing room.
“All in all, I thought we did pretty well with serve receive, but we still had a bunch of unforced errors and that’s what hurt us on Saturday. We know that Chattanooga Christian has an outstanding team, but we also wanted them to have to earn their points without our help. That was part of my frustration.
“I’m so proud that we pulled through despite all of those errors, but I think we wanted a little revenge after Saturday. That’s how you close a match. We haven’t really been challenged in our district matches so far, so it was different to see another team push us to the limit. We worked really hard at the end and made it come together,” she added.
Kelsey Henderson is one of four seniors on the Soddy Daisy roster and she’s a player who simply refused to lose on Monday night.
Her stats had her with seven kills, two digs and a block, but it was her effort on the match point that was simply outstanding and completely worthy of a highlight reel.
Soddy Daisy had stayed alive on a kill from Alyx Howell that knotted the score at 15-15 in that final set.
A CCS hitting error gave the Lady Trojans the upper hand at 16-15, setting the stage for one of the greatest rallies in the match.
At one point, a Soddy Daisy hit went toward their bench, but Henderson simply refused to be denied. She crashed into her teammates and knocked them to the floor as she somehow kept the ball in play and the rally alive before recording the match point with a kill once she regained her footing and got back on the court.
An ace from Sanoe Patterson was the winning point in the first set as Soddy Daisy overcame a 20-17 deficit to win by scoring eight of the final 10 points.
The Lady Chargers never led in the second set as a 5-1 Soddy Daisy lead stretched to 19-7 before CCS rallied. With Summer Jones knocking down six straight service points, CCS made it interesting and got within 23-18 before kills from Sierrah Lemons and Caroline Lemons closed it out and gave the home team a 2-0 lead.
The third set alone was worth the price of admission as there were a dozen ties and six lead changes.
Soddy Daisy had a 24-23 lead and a chance to finish the match before back-to-back mistakes allowed CCS to regain the lead. Jones then unleashed an ace to give CCS its first set.
A kill from Abbey Massey gave CCS the first point in the fourth set and the lead was 5-2 before Peigen called her first timeout.
The difference was 8-3 a minute later when the spirited Soddy Daisy coach called her second timeout and she was clearly not happy with the way her team was playing.
Things really never got any better for the Lady Trojans as seven straight service points from Lauren Kay extended the CCS lead to 18-8. It never got much closer as another Soddy Daisy hitting error evened the match at two sets apiece.
Neither team led by more than two points in that frantic fifth set, but Peigen called her final timeout with her team trailing 13-11.
A pair of kills from Sierra Lemons tied the score at 14-14 before Howell’s kill a minute later knotted things at 15, setting the stage for Henderson’s last-second heroics.
Sierra Lemons finished the match with 16 kills for Soddy Daisy while Howell had 13. Mikayla Phillips had 24 digs while Hannah Rogers was credited with 38 assists and 17 digs.
Ricketts had 11 kills for the Lady Chargers while Lauren Kay had 27 digs. Rachel Kay followed with 18 digs and 17 assists while Jones had 23 digs and Lauren Day 17 digs. Emily Day had 19 assists to go with her 13 digs.
Both teams return to action with big matches on Wednesday. Soddy Daisy will host Ooltewah in a Pink Out match for breast cancer awareness. Ooltewah is coached by Elaine Peigen, herself a breast cancer survivor and Libby’s mother.
Chattanooga Christian will travel to Notre Dame for a key region match against the Lady Irish. CCS won the first match by a tense 3-2 final at CCS earlier in the season.
The Lady Chargers have a match at Collegedale Academy on Tuesday before that big battle on Wednesday.
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN STATS:
Jolie Adams – 5 kills, 3 blocks, 1 dig
Emily Day – 13 digs, 19 assists, 2 aces
Lauren Kay – 3 aces, 27 digs, 2 assists
A.J. Johnson – 8 kills, 8 digs
Avery Ray – 1 block, 2 digs
Lauren Day – 17 digs
Summer Jones – 1 block, 23 digs, 6 kills, 2 aces
Rachel Kay – 18 digs, 17 assists, 2 kills
Abbey Massey – 7 kills, 1 block, 2 digs
Grace Logterman – 5 digs, 5 blocks, 3 kills, 1 ace
Savannah Ricketts – 1 block, 3 digs, 11 kills.
SODDY DAISY STATS:
Mikayla Phillips – 2 assists, 24 digs, 1 ace
Sydney Seeger – 12 digs, 1 ace
Hannah Rogers – 1 kill, 38 assists, 17 digs, 1 ace
Kelsey Henderson – 7 kills, 1 block, 2 digs
Alyx Howell – 13 kills, 4 digs
Sierrah Lemons – 16 kills, 2 blocks, 3 digs, 1 ace
Hope Ingle – 3 kills, 1 block, 1 dig
Caroline Lemons – 9 kills, 1 dig
Sanoe Patterson – 1 kill, 9 digs, 3 aces
Allie Lemacks – 2 kills.
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)