Murphy – Entering Thursday’s home match against Andrews, the Murphy volleyball team just needed to finish.
One week earlier the Lady Bulldogs won two of the first three sets against Robbinsville, but the Lady Knights prevailed in five sets. Then on Oct. 3 at Swain County, Murphy won the first two sets before the Lady Devils pulled off the reverse sweep, which included the Lady Bulldogs having match point at 24-23 in the fourth set.
So when Murphy won the third set 25-11 to finish off the sweep of the Lady Wildcats (25-19, 25-18, 25-11) on Thursday, there was a little more emotion than usual.
“Sometimes you gotta work through adversity a lot more than you want to,” Lady Bulldogs head coach Nikol Edwards said. “But that’s just kind of part of sports and part of life. It’s something that we have to continue to work on. I feel like they finally stepped up today and played the way they’re capable of playing.”
The match was similar to the one played at Andrews (6-11 overall, 0-8 Big Smoky Mountain Conference) back on Sept. 5, where the Lady Wildcats scrapped for points but never had an answer for Murphy’s (10-7, 4-4) Maddison Seabolt. In this one, Seabolt had 13 kills, five service aces and was a force in the blocking game.
Andrews started hot with a 6-2 lead in the first set, and led 10-8 before Seabolt started to impose her will. She had five kills in a 10-2 Murphy run, which along with aces from Cali Rumfelt and Cayla Geer helped the Lady Dogs take control of the first set.
The Lady Wildcats cut the set lead to 21-19 before Murphy scored the final four points. That included kills from Geer and Lailee Holloway and an ace from Addyson Dickey.
Andrews head coach Shanna Mustin said she tried to change her team’s starting lineup to counteract Seabolt and the Lady Bulldogs’ size up front, but Murphy’s height was still too much. However, Andrews tried to make sure the points were hard earned.
Both teams started the final week of the regular season after press time Tuesday, with Murphy traveling to Cherokee (16-3, 8-0) and Andrews to Hayesville (6-12, 2-6). The Lady Bulldogs will wrap up the regular season by hosting the Lady Jackets on Thursday for Senior Night, while the Lady Wildcats will travel to Swain County (15-5, 4-4).