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Murphy's Grace Nelson rises for a hit in the SMC Championship match.
Murphy – In a much-anticipated rematch, the Murphy Lady Bulldogs fell to the Robbinsville Lady Knights in three sets at the Smoky Mountain Conference Championship match Wednesday night.
The Lady Dogs (22-3), who rolled into the tournament with a 14 game win streak, fell behind the Lady Knights (22-2) out of the gate.
However, Murphy caught back up with Robbinsville and tied the match at 12-12 midway through the first set.
The two teams continued exchanging runs until the Lady Knights narrowly pulled away to take the first set 25-23.
The Lady Dogs came out strong to start the second half, taking an early 6-3 lead.
But Robbinsville countered, tying the match later at 15-15 and claiming the second set 25-21.
The third set was more of the same, with both teams exchanging points and no team breaking away until the Lady Knights ended the set with a short run to win the set 25-22 and the match 3-0.
The Lady Dogs will now wait to find out their seeding in the state playoffs, which should be released sometime on Thursday, Oct. 23.