Clarksville, TN – Top-seeded West Creek High School dropped its opening game to Rossview High School, in the District 10-AAA tournament semifinals October 8th, but rallied to defeat the Lady Hawks 22-25, 25-16, 25-22 and 25-18 to reach the tournament’s championship game.
The Lady Coyotes (36-12) jumped out to a 6-1 lead in Game 1 over the Lady Hawks behind three aces from Kayla Ford and two kills from Shayla Smith, but third-seeded Rossview (17-15) responded by scoring 12 of the next 13 points to take a 13-7 advantage.
Jessica Mattson would have five of her 10 totals kills in the match during that run.
The game would remain at a five- or six-point advantage for Rossview, with the Lady Hawks holding their biggest lead of the game at 20-13.
“We just had a lot of unforced errors and came out a little flat,” West Creek coach Josh Stoeckl said. “But you also have to credit Rossview with the way they came out and played early too.”
West Creek would rally to tie the game 22-22, but Rossview would close out the first game with three straight points for the 25-22 win and a 1-0 advantage.
“We sort of lost a little bit of momentum at the end of the first game and kind of let them back into the game,” Weber said. “And that kind of carried over into the second set.”
In Game 2, West Creek would lead 5-3 early-on, but the two teams would be tied as late as 9-9, before the Lady Coyotes went on a 7-0 run powered by Aliah Mcphaul’s four kills.
Mcphaul finished with team-high 14 kills.
“As the game went on we got things going,” Stoeckl said. “The good problem we have here at West Creek is that we have several good hitters and if one is having an off day one of the others steps up.
“The first set we had several that were off, but starting in the second set our offense started clicking.”
Rossview wouldn’t get any closer than six points the rest of the way in Game 2, with West Creek winning 25-16 to even the match 1-1.
Game 3 would be the most closely battled game from start to finish, with neither team holding more than a four-point advantage at any point in the contest.
But they would score the final two points of the game to take the 25-22 win and a 2-1 lead, needing only one more game to advance to the tournament finals.
The fourth game would see Rossview battle right to the end, but West Creek’s offense slowly pulled away late as the game went on with the Lady Coyotes closing out the match with a seven-point win, 25-18, for the 3-1 victory and a spot in the finals.
West Creek will face Clarksville High School, who defeated Henry County High School in the other semifinal matchup, in the October 9th finals – starting at 6:00pm — with both teams advancing to the October 13th Region 5-AAA tournament.
“We just have to stay the course,” Stoeckl said. “We need to be aggressive, make good passes and let our hitters do and hit.
“If we can do that and set the tone early we’ll be fine, but if we don’t and let them set the tone it’ll be a dogfight all night long.”
