Charlotte Middle volleyball in the hunt to repeat

The Charlotte Middle volleyball team is certainly starting to look like a team that wants to repeat at the MTAC conference champions.

They’ve battled through the season giving up only two loses (8-2) – only one in their division of the conference. After Tuesday’s 2-0 win over William James (25-12, 29-27) Charlotte proved once again that no matter how much of a hole they find themselves in, they have the ability to climb back out and straight on to victory.

“We have a good chance to when we go to Harpeth next week, if we can go down there and beat them, then we’d probably be at least a tie at top,” Charlotte head coach Steve Jones said after Tuesday’s win.

Charlotte’s division is made up of them Harpeth, William James and Cheatham in the MTAC. Harpeth is the only division loss for the Lady Tigers. Overall, it’s been a tough group the coach added. William James took CMS to three sets when they played back on Aug. 19 in White Bluff.

“We were down four there in that third set, 14-11, and we came back and won 16-14 so it was a tight game there as well,” Jones said. “They do a good job of playing against us.”

William James showed they could hit hard as well, stepping up with an early lead in the first set, 4-2. Nora Welch got the Lady Colonels started with a four-point run serving that included an ace. Charlotte eventually tied things back up at 10-10, but again WJM stayed focused. A big outside hit by Sydney Goforth would give the Lady Colonels back the serve.

Aces and Hits

It would be Charlotte’s Lexi Buckner who would have the last hot hand serving, cranking out eight aces to help lock in the win. William James kept battling though and the combined serves of Taylor Hooper and Welch helped the visiting team go up 9-6. Later in the second set, Welch would again give her team the edge with another three-point run that had WJM ahead 20-18.

Consistent hitting by Jase Jackson would eventually give the Lady Tigers the edge they needed to claw out a win after trading shot for shot with WJM.

The Lady Tigers are clearly a strong hitting and serving team and staying consistent with both will be the key heading into the conference tournament in a couple of weeks.

“If can get a good pass and a good set. We have two good hitters on the outside, Lexi Buckner and Jase Jackson, if we can get them good sets they have done a good job all year of getting good hits for us. It’s just been a challenge to get the ball out there for them to hit.”

As the defending MTAC champs, the team already knows that they will be getting everyone’s best game when they play conference rivals.

“When Harpeth came in and beat us (Aug. 26), they hadn’t beat us in a while…so it is a challenge,” Coach Jones said. “Everybody is shooting out for you, but it’s a good challenge for us to try and hold serve.

“We have a good shot of being there in the end if we play to our full capability. We just haven’t got there yet. We got about a week and a half, I hope we can get there in that time.”

Dickson Middle Volleyball

The Dickson Middle volleyball is also off to another solid start with a regular season record of 8-1, defeating Sycamore at home (2-0) and Charlotte away (2-0) this past week and Harpeth at home and Cheatham away last week.

“In our most recent matches, we have served well and continued to hit the ball well,” DMS head coach Heather Minnis told The Herald. “Our only regular season loss has been to Freedom Middle on September 5.

“Also, we competed in the Mule Town Classic September 12 and 13 and finished the tournament 4-1, winning the Silver Division.”

The Lady Dragons overall record is 18-3. They play in the Spring Station Smash Tournament this weekend, Sept. 19 - 20.

High School Scores - Sept. 16

• Dickson Co. High volleyball lost to Franklin, 3-0 (25-15, 25-15, 25-21)

• Creek Wood High girls soccer lost at Fairview, 7-1

• Dickson Co. High girls soccer lost at Centennial, 5-0

Next Games - Sept. 23

• CMS at Harpeth

• WJM at Cheatham Co.

• DMS at Spring Hill

• CW soccer home vs. Mont. Central

• DC soccer home vs. Brentwood

• CW volleyball at Mont. Central