By W. Patrick Queen
Sports writer
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Patrick Queen • Clay County Progress The Lady Yellow Jackets celebrate an ace serve by Lilly Dockery in their win over Robbinsville.
The HMS Lady Yellow Jackets boarded the bus on Monday, Oct. 11 and took off to play the Lady Bulldogs in Murphy for the first of three games last week. The start of the week was as easy-peasy as HMS beat Murphy 25-0 and 25-10.
Commenting on the win, coach Laurie Shook said, “In all the years I have coached volleyball I have never played in a game where the opponent didn’t score a single point. So this was a real milestone win for us, possibly one for the record books.”
In what is quite possibly another record, in the first game, Ava Shook served 25 straight points with 11 of those being aces. Jasmine Brooks, Blaire Hedden and Bryleigh Krieger had 1 kill each. In the second game, Olivia Giddens had 2 kills while Savannah Burch, Hedden, Lilly Dockery and Kaydence Morrow each had two aces as the team rolled to another easy win.
Unfortunately, the game against Cherokee on Tuesday, Oct. 12 did not go the way of the HMS Lady Jackets. Hayesville began game one with determination and won handily with a score of 25-17.
In game two, the team came out flat. With only three missed serves in the second game, this could have quite easily notched the Lady Jackets another win and a quick bus ride home. However, due to some serving and ball handling errors, the team was unable to capture the win, losing a heart-breaker, 29-27. The team got down early in the third set, but rallied back, losing 12-15 and their outside hitter Olivia Giddens in the process. Giddens went down with an apparent ankle injury late in the third set. Coach Shook was quite proud of her young team and the fight they demonstrated in this match.
One of the great things about the roster of the Hayesville Middle School volleyball team is their ability to bounce back with a positive mindset when it’s time to face their next challenge. Such an ability comes from practicing the fundamentals, good coaching and learning to trust in your teammates. So, after losing to Cherokee on Tuesday, the girls came out Thursday, Oct. 14 ready to take care of business against conference opponent Robbinsville Middle School.
Take care of business they did with every single server serving 100% from the floor in the first set and only missing one serve as a team in the second set. It may be said that these young Lady Jackets saved some of their best play of the year for this match. Stat leaders for the night were Shook with 3 kills, five set assists, two ace serves and five digs and Giddens with 3 kills, two ace serves and three digs. Brooks was a stalwart contributor with 6 kills, nine digs and one block, while Krieger had 1 kill, five ace serves, and nine digs.
When asked how this win would affect the season’s record, coach Shook replied, “Our final record ends up being 9-5, but I will not know what place we finished in the Smoky Mountain Conference until all the school’s athletic directors turn in the season records. One final note, HMS will have eight seventh graders returning to lead the team next year while six of the talented eighth graders will be moving on to the high school squad.”
Congratulations to the middle school squad on a winning season.