Murphy – After Robbinsville’s loss at Cherokee on Sept. 29, Murphy volleyball had a way back into the Big Smoky Mountain Conference championship pursuit.
The Lady Bulldogs took advantage, besting both the Lady Knights (20-25, 25-21, 25-23, 25-18) and Swain County (25-19, 15-25, 25-18, 25-17) to move into a three-way tie for first place with Robbinsville and Cherokee. The wins also avenged Murphy’s (17-4 overall, 6-2 conference) only conference losses this season.
“Progressively over the course of the season we’ve gotten better,” head coach Jordan Lovingood said.
“And I think that’s really been showing in the games we’ve been playing.”
Murphy played Andrews after press time Tuesday. With a win over the Lady Wildcats and a win Thursday against Cherokee, the Lady Bulldogs would clinch a share of the regular-season title.
“Conference games are everything – you can’t take anything lightly,” Lovingood said. “Going into next week, we just have to finish to put ourselves in a good position for the tournament.”
The atmosphere against Robbinsville (13-6, 6-2) on Oct. 4 was the best Murphy had played in all year. The Lady Bulldogs fed off of it, leading 10-5 in the first set before Robbinsville woke up and took over late. Robbinsville outside hitters Delany Brooms and Kensley Phillips combined for kills on five of the last six points, and the Lady Knights took the opening set.
Neither team led by three or more points until the final parts of the second set. The Lady Knights took a 20-18 lead after a kill from Brooms and a kill and solo block from Aubrie Wachacha. Murphy answered with a 5-0 run
with Julia Dockery at the service line to force the set point at 24-20, and a kill from Maddison Seabolt gave the Lady Bulldogs the second-set win.
Starting in the second set, Murphy limited Robbinsville’s ability to get into a rhythm. While both teams had success blocking, the Lady Bulldogs did a better job limiting production from Brooms and Phillips.
“We focused on outside defense and making sure the block was where it was supposed to be,” Lovingood said. “I would guess we probably had the most blocks tonight that we had all year. We see the importance of that, and we just gotta keep getting better from here.”
The third set was close again, with Murphy having some well placed kills and serves early before pulling ahead 21-16. Robbinsville answered to tie the set at 22, only for a Liv Payne kill and combination block from Dockery and Addie Johnson put the Lady Bulldogs at set point. After Tai Owle’s hit over the net just stayed in-bounds, Dockery’s kill off the block gave Murphy a 2-1 lead in the match.
The fourth set followed a similar path by being close early before a 12-2 Lady Bulldogs run gave them match point at 24-15. Robbinsville scored three straight to stay alive before a Seabolt kill ended the match.
“I feel like the last time we were at Robbinsville we never really got off the bus,” Payne said. “We weren’t all there. And today, just with the atmosphere, it really helped us a lot.”
The vibe in the gym was different two days later against the Lady Devils, and Murphy also looked sluggish. Swain led the early part of the first set before a 5-0 Lady Bulldogs’ run gave them an 18-13 lead. Four straight points from the Lady Devils cut the Murphy lead to 20-18, but Seabolt took over in the middle to give the Lady Bulldogs a first-set win.
Things never clicked for Murphy in the second set. Swain County jumped out to a 13-4 lead, and the Lady Bulldogs couldn’t string points together. They struggled at the service line, and didn’t block well enough to get touches on
the Lady Devils’ hits. That allowed Swain to cruise to the second-set win and tie the match.
It was a hot start for the Lady Bulldogs in the third set as they jumped out to a 14-6 lead. Swain County’s Gracie Sutton had two kills and two blocks in a five-point stretch to cut the lead to 14-11, before Payne and Seabolt took over for Murphy. The duo had a kill or block on nine of the Lady Bulldogs’ final 11 points in the third set.
After trading points to start the fourth set, the Lady Bulldogs opened up a 10-5 lead and were able to fight off any Swain County runs to win the match.