Middle school volleyball in final phase of season
On Monday night, the Norris Middle School Lady Senators Volleyball team defeated the Clinton Middle School Lady Hawks 2-1.
The win moved Norris into the semifinals of the Middle School Volleyball Tournament.
Both teams played hard to keep their seasons alive, but Norris came out on top with 25-8, 21-25, 15-11 efforts through three sets.
Kayla Humphrey led the way for the Norris Lady Senators, scoring 18 points and tallied seven aces. Emma Neff followed with eight points and two aces.
Plus, Eberly Mayes added five points and two aces for Norris.
The Clinton Middle School Lady Hawks were led by number four, in the second set alone, served 12 of Clinton’s points and had ten aces.
Additionally, in the second set, she scored 71 percent of the Lady Hawks points.
The Lady Senators’ win advanced them into the semifinals of the tournament, where they faced off against Robertsville.
A semifinal match win would move the Lady Senators into the tournament final, where Norris would face the winner of the Jefferson/Horace Maynard semifinal.
The Tuesday night semifinal and final match results were unknown by press time.
The Lady Senator Volleyball team closed out their regular season schedule last Tuesday with two home matches versus district foes.
The first match pitted NMS against the regular season champion and undefeated Jefferson Middle School.
The team from Oak Ridge jumped out to 12-7 lead in the first set and kept up the pressure leading 21-16 after NMS Coach Jeff Harshbarger called his last timeout.
Norris was unable to close the early gap and dropped the first set 25-18.
The second set was a back and forth contest until Jefferson surged ahead 19-15 and NMS called a timeout.
After the break in action the Lady Senators took control backed by the serving prowess of 8th grade Libero Anna Kay Smith who served two straight points and setter Eberly Mayes who then served up six points to secure the set victory for Norris 25-20.
The Norris victory in game 2 set the stage for an epic and decisive set three.
During the 15 point set there were six ties and two lead changes.
The Lady Senators took an early lead at 5-2 on the tough serving of Kayla Humphrey.
Jefferson then made a run of their own scoring six straight points to take a 8-5 lead on several NMS errors.
Norris would not give up and clawed back to tie the match at 10-10.
After several back and points the set was knotted at 13-13 when Jefferson scored the 14 points on another NMS error.
Jefferson then served for the match and won 15-13 when the Lady Senators failed to communicate on a ball and it fell to the floor untouched. Leading the scoring for Norris were Eberly Mayes with 10 points and 4 aces.
Kyra Damewood and Ali Richards both contributed key kills for the Lady Senators.
After a hard fought match and a tough loss, Norris had to face regular season District runner-up Robertsville Middle.
Norris did not let the previous loss drag them down but instead took out their frustration on Robertsville surging to a 8-3 lead and never looking back winning the first set 25-19.
The second set versus Robertsville was not contest as Norris dominated from the start leading 17-4 before substituting several 8th grade players for their last home match.
Leading the way with 10 points and three aces was Emily Mustard.
Emma Neff and Kayla Humphrey both added seven points and one ace.
Norris played in the District Area 2 tournament on Sept. 24 versus Clinton Middle School with the winner advancing to the semi-finals played on Sept. 25.
The top two teams in the Area Tournament will compete at the TMSSA Sectional Tournament on Sept. 29 at Anderson County High School.
