Improved, young Lady Dragons see season come to a close
Lady Dragon Zavie Ford gets the dig in last Thursday’s district tournament matchup against Oak Ridge. (photo:Tony Cox )
Clinton concluded the campaign with 23 wins and won a District 3-AAA Tournament quarterfinal match when it notched a 25-17, 19-25, 25-18,25-16 victory over Halls on Wednesday, Oct. 5.
Still, second-year Coach Lorri Johnson was a bit distrsught after the Lady Dragons (23-13) lost in the tournament semifinals to eventual champion Oak Ridge.
“I’m a little disappointed,” Johnson said after the Lady Dragons fell to the Lady Wildcats 25-17, 25-19, 25-19 Thursday night at Karns High School. “I thought we would compete and we did.
“We’re a young team but we have a solid foundation,” she said. “We’ll lose two seniors that we will miss greatly, but we have a good group of freshmen coming in.”
The 2022 season is over and Clinton will have fall break this week. Once that’s over, the Lady Dragons will begin preparations for the 2023 campaign.
During the 2022 preseason, Johnson thought her team might be better.
She feels much the same heading into 2023.
“It was a year where we showed tons of improvement,” Johnson said. “Heading into this season, I thought we would be a year older and a year better, and that’s the plan (for 2023).
“We’ll take fall break (this) week and then we’ll come back and start next season. We’ll get into the weight room and we’ll start jumping. We’re going to build two sand courts and we’ll start jumping in the sand.”
In the season finale against the Lady Wildcats, freshman Lanee Carmichael had four kills and eight digs. Josie Moody, Brooklynn Blisard and Darbi Brummett added three kills each.
Defensively, Moody came up with 17 digs. McKenzie Crisp and Moody had 14 apiece and Carmichael came up with eight.
Moody was Clinton’s leading passer as she dished out 11 assists.