Murphy – For Lady Bulldogs volleyball, the Aug. 22 three-set loss to Franklin was tough, but it showed Murphy’s players what they needed to work on.
The Lady Bulldogs took the court for the first time since that loss three days later, and there were already signs of improvement in a three-set sweep of Hiwassee Dam (25-7, 25-20, 25-14) on Thursday.
“You want to schedule teams like that to make you better, especially early in the season,” head coach Jordan Lovingood said. “Monday showed us exactly what we need to work on, and the focus has been defense all week.”
Coming into the year, Lovingood knew she had quite a few kids who could hit. Senior outside hitters Olivia Payne and Riley Dockery get most the swings, and Maddison Seabolt is the other main hitter out of the middle, while Cali Rumfelt, Julia Dockery and Lailee Holloway can get a good swing on the ball when given the opportunity.
The challenge at times is getting them the good pass and keeping things running smoothly. With no libero this year, everyone has to be involved in the defense and passing to set up good opportunities for the hitters.
“Just passing on the back row and knowing what position you’re supposed to be in, it really wasn’t clear to us until we saw on Monday exactly where we weren’t and where we were supposed to be,” Lovingood said.
The Lady Eagles (1-5 overall) may not have been on Franklin’s level, but their work on defense appeared to pay off. When focused, Murphy (3-1) was able to stymie Hiwassee Dam’s hitters and go to work on offense. That was true in the first set, when the Lady Bulldogs started hot and never looked back in a 25-7 rout.
Murphy didn’t quite come out with the same level of fire in the second and third sets, but it never felt like either set was out of the Lady Bulldogs’ control. It was more mental errors and a few good Hiwassee Dam runs at the service line that kept the scores competitive.
“The first game is everything if you can get momentum on your side,” Lovingood said. “That’s half the battle the rest of the night, but coming out in game 2 or 3, I don’t know what it is about us, but we usually do that, just have a little bit of a lag.
“I don’t know if it’s just we think we have the game won already or whatever, but going forward that cannot be the mentality if we play better teams.”
The second set was back and forth before a 6-2 Lady Bulldogs’ run pushed the lead to 23-17, but Hiwassee Dam rallied for three straight before kills from Payne and Holloway to put away the set. Murphy also led 15-5 in the third set when Hiwassee Dam scored six straight to stay in striking distance, before the Lady Bulldogs made the run to win the set and sweep the match.
Murphy started Big Smoky Mountain Conference Play with a match at Hayesville on Tuesday and has another conference game Thursday at Robbinsville. The Lady Bulldogs and the Lady Knights were the top two teams in the conference last year, with Murphy winning both regular-season matches before Robbinsville beat the Lady Bulldogs in the conference tournament.
Both teams suffered significant losses, though the Lady Knights probably have a few more experienced players than the Lady Bulldogs.
“We’re a young team, and we haven’t played with each other a lot,” Seabolt said. “We just have to focus on finding a rhythm and what works in between us.”