Murphy – In their first Big Smoky Mountain Conference game in 13 days, the Lady Bulldogs’ volleyball team knew they were in for a challenge against Cherokee on Thursday.
The Lady Braves are probably the best team in the conference, and a giant step up from the Lady Bulldogs’ previous two weeks of competition, which included wins over all four Little Smoky Mountain Conference teams as well as a loss to Fannin County. But it wasn’t the 3-0 loss (25-15, 25-15, 25-9) that bothered head coach Nikol Edwards as much as the way it happened.
“We knew what to expect,” Edwards said. “We knew they were going to be good, we knew what they had, we just didn’t show up for it.”
After being the conference doormat for years, Cherokee (11-3 overall, 4-0 conference) has flipped the script the last three seasons. The previous two years the Lady Braves could scrap defensively to make up for their lack of size, but with the addition of 5-foot, 10-inch freshman Arden Arkansas and 6’1 freshman Joscelyn Stamper they are a more complete team.
Cherokee also has a lot of travel volleyball players, which means they know how to play the game. Teams have to be able to get good swings on the ball to beat the Lady Braves, and Murphy (8-4, 2-2) didn’t have the passing to do that consistently. With the Lady Bulldogs at time struggling just to get the ball over, Cherokee was able to get better swings on the ball.
“You gotta be able to adjust to the team that’s on the other side of the floor,”
Edwards said. “You have to be able to maneuver and do those things that are expected in order to keep the ball in play.”
Murphy had a little jolt of energy to start the match with two kills and three services aces from Maddison Seabolt to jump out to a 7-2 lead, but it quickly faded. After a Seabolt service error sent the Lady Braves’ Awee Walkingstick to the service line, Cherokee went on an 8-0 run to take control of the set. The Lady Braves did not trail again for the rest of the first set or the next two sets.
Following a kill by Lailee Holloway, the Lady Braves went on a 9-0 run with Alexis Davis at the service line and cruised to a first-set win from there. In the second set, Murphy hustled at times, but couldn’t match Cherokee on the other side. The Lady Bulldogs didn’t block enough, either, with Coco Wells, Davis and Stamper getting too many easy opportunities.
That carried over to the third set, and it didn’t help that Murphy made a few unforced errors. The struggles in serve receive continued as well, with the Lady Braves’ Kyla Moore helping her team go on a 7-0 run to close out the set and clinch Cherokee volleyball’s first-ever win over Murphy.
The Lady Bulldogs returned to the court Monday against Franklin (14-1) and traveled to Hayesville (5-9, 2-2) after press time Tuesday to finish the first half of conference play. It’s five more conference games after that, and Edwards knows things have to improve as her team heads into the toughest part of its schedule.
“We just gotta continue to work on the little things,” Edwards said. “Everybody has a job on the floor, and they have to do that job to the best of their ability in order for our team to play the way we’re supposed to.”