THRILLER
Lady Mavs lose, but take a giant step
Shelby Kelly, a freshman middle hitter, serves against Farragut Monday night. (photo:Bill Howard, farragutpress )
And Monday was one of those nights for the Lady Mavericks as they came up on the losing set of a thrilling five-set match against Farragut on the road.
After winning the first set, ACHS had to battle back to force a fifth game, and fell to the Lady Admirals, 18-25, 25-22, 25-22, 24-26, 15-6 at Farragut’s Lynn E. Sexton Gymnasium.
“We made some mistakes that young teams make, and I think we lost our legs in that fifth set,” Smith said. “We had a long weekend at a tournament where we lost in the championship match of the Gold Division, and we got home late.
“But that’s no excuse. We expect them to give their full 110 percent when they play.”
The Lady Mavericks had some hitting errors at times as their youth was on display against Farragut, which has had its struggles in 2022 as its program is in the midst of a rebuilding campaign.
Rebuilding or not, Smith said that the Lady Admirals still have athletes.
“They’re a good team over there and they have some great players,” Smith said. “This was tough and we made some young mistakes. But we’ll learn and will get it figured out.”
Statistics weren’t available immediately after the match but Smith said that her team picked up solid performances from its lone senior, outside hitter Anna Kay Smith, setter Jaylynn Bullock (a sophomore and freshman middle blocker Shelby Kelly.
“Anna Kay continues to play well but she has a lot of the pressure on her shoulders,” Coach Smith said. “Jaylynn is playing well and Shelby is really coming along.”
Each set was competitive and Anderson County had late leads in four of the five games.
In the fifth set, Farragut darted out to an 8-0 advantage and never trailed.
