East Hamilton's Georgia Dobson and Madison Allen defends against Hixson's Anna Johnston.
photo by M.A. Locke
The East Hamilton Lady Hurricanes didn’t waste any time taking care of business at Hixson Wednesday night.
Facing the Hixson Lady Wildcats for the District 6-AA championship, the Lady Canes needed just over an hour to claim their fourth straight 6-AA title as they swept Hixson by scores of 25-12, 25-19 and 25-17.
With the win, East Hamilton wraps up another year where they didn’t lose a district match and breezed to another tournament title. The Lady Canes are now 25-5 following Wednesday’s win.
“I can’t tell you how proud of these young ladies as they’ve put in their share of hard work. All I ask is that they give their best effort and they did exactly that tonight,” said Antonela Tomic Suzuki, the East Hamilton coach, afterward.
“Our goal is to control what we can and to get a little bit better every time we step on the court. And to play for the love of the game. We were in control the whole match, but that first set we served as well as we’ve served all year.
“It was a total team effort, but we have a great group of seniors who are really good role models and they’ve done a great job helping the younger ones. We all have the same goal and we fully believe that we belong at the state tournament,” the coach continued with a confident tone.
Both East Hamilton and Hixson advance to the region, which will be held at Alcoa on Tuesday. The region champion will host a sectional match on Thursday while the region runner-up will travel. Sectional winners all advance to the state tournament, which will be held in Murfreesboro on Oct. 19-21.
Hixson coach Robert Catlett didn’t have much explanation for his team’s slow start, but he was quick to admit that East Hamilton has a really good team and is much deserving of being the tournament champion again.
“We didn’t start off too good, but I thought we looked better and played with them in the last two sets,” he said while taking a break following the match.
“It’s all about serve receive and we struggled with it the entire match. East Hamilton is good, but we have to come out ready to play and to be focused on what we’re doing. East Hamilton had a lot to do with how we played, but we just have to be able to find the open spots and to play smarter volleyball.
“We still have work to do, but we’ll go to Alcoa and see what happens,” he added.
A kill from Tristin Sutton and two kills by Madison Allen gave the Lady Hurricanes a 3-2 lead in the opening set before Amya Sutton took control with nine straight service points and four of her seven aces.
East Hamilton’s biggest lead was 13 points at 16-3 before set point, but Hixson simply had no answers as everything seemed to be working as planned for the Lady Canes.
The second set was much more competitive as the score was tied five times before East Hamilton broke from a 14-14 deadlock to score six of the next seven points. Hixson got within three at 22-19 on an East Hamilton service error, but the Lady Canes rebounded to win by scoring the next three points.
The third set wasn’t as close as the second one.
Laila Ankar had five straight service points as East Hamilton’s lead went from 5-3 to 10-3. A block by Riley Bellamy got Hixson to within 14-9, but East Hamilton was just too strong at the net and slowly pulled away to win the match.
Madison Allen, who was named the tournament MVP, led the way for East Hamilton with 16 kills and seven digs. McKenna Hayes, who hits it as hard as anyone up front, added nine kills and 11 digs while Ankar finished with 13 digs and four assists. Tristin Sutton was credited with 28 assists.
Ava Rogers topped Hixson with five kills while Ryleigh Quarles had 13 digs. Jordan Westfall was credited with four assists while Bellamy finished with two blocks.
WHILE ALLEN was voted the tournament MVP, East Hamilton teammates on the all-tournament team included Amya Sutton, Hayes, Ankar and Tristin Sutton. Hixson honorees included Westfall, Bellamy, Rogers and Finnell. Makiah Tate earned a spot for Central while Red Bank’s duo of Shante Smith and Whitley Gann was also picked.
Hixson’s record is now 10-7.
EAST HAMILTON STATS:
McKenna Hayes – 9 kills, 11 digs, 3 aces
Laila Ankar – 4 assists, 13 digs, 3 aces
Georgia Dobson – 5 kills, 3 blocks, 3 digs
Amya Sutton – 5 kills, 1 block, 9 digs, 7 aces
Tristin Sutton – 3 kills, 3 blocks, 28 assists, 8 digs, 1 ace
Morgan Bone – 1 kill, 1 block
Madison Allen – 16 kills, 1 assist, 7 digs.
HIXSON STATS:
Meghan Kernea – 2 digs
Izabel Todd – 1 ace, 1 block, 6 digs
Jordan Westfall – 1 ace, 6 digs, 4 assists
Ryleigh Quarles – 13 digs
Paris Simmons – 1 ace, 1 kill, 1 assist
Ja’Niyah Alford – 1 dig
Ava Rogers – 5 kills, 3 digs
Riley Bellamy – 2 kills, 2 blocks
Morgan Delashmitt – 1 kill, 1 dig
Anna Johnston – 1 assist, 2 digs
Macey Reagan – 1 dig
Ella Finnell – 2 aces, 2 kills, 1 block, 6 digs.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)
Amya Sutton serves for East Hamilton.
photo by M.A. Locke