Both Andrews and Hiwassee Dam’s volleyball seasons ended on Oct. 17 in their respective conference tournaments.
The No. 6 seed Lady Wildcats fell to No. 3 seed Cherokee in the first round of the Big Smoky Mountain Conference tournament in straight sets (11-25, 18-25, 9-25) to finish the season with a 2-17 record. Andrews struggled with some injuries this year, with junior middle hitter Carley Clark and freshman libero Ally Gibson both missing games, while junior defensive specialist Tailor Jenkins missed the entire season.
“With such a small team I was asking people to play positions they don’t normally play or practice,” Mustin said. “But the girls had the best attitude, they came out working hard every single day.
The Lady Wildcats will graduate just two starters, and Mustin is hoping the returners will use this year as experience to know what they need to do to close the gap between them and the rest of the conference. She would like to see certain skills like serve-receive and blocking get better, but also thinks drills to help improve footwork and their verticals could translate to the sport as well.
“If we can overcome just a few things, I really do feel like we can be competitive within our conference,” Mustin said.
The No. 3 seed Lady Eagles fell in the Little Smoky Mountain Conference Tournament semifinals in five sets to No. 2 seed Blue Ridge (25-16, 15-25, 16-25, 25-20, 11-15).
“They gave a phenomenal effort in that first round of the tournament,” head coach Monica Wayman said. “We took them to five. I couldn’t say enough about their grit and their overall effort, they remained determined.”
It was not the easiest season for Hiwassee Dam, which finished with a 3-18 record, so Wayman was proud of her team’s fight until the end. The Lady Eagles had just two seniors on their roster – and one, Payton McNabb, did not play after suffering a concussion against Highlands on Sept. 1.
That meant a lot of inexperience, and it showed against other Little SMC teams like the Lady Bobcats and Lady Highlanders, who were senior heavy. The goal for the offseason is to try to develop more chemistry, Wayman said, and hope that leads to a higher starting point going into next season.
“Our sophomores and juniors weren’t used to playing with our freshmen, and I had to play a lot of freshmen,” Wayman said. “Just having that chemistry with each other also goes a long way into what we can be for next year.”