Murphy – With Murphy volleyball sprinting to win the Big Smoky Mountain Conference championship in the last few weeks, there hasn’t been a lot of down time. So the goal coming into Saturday’s N.C. High School Athletic Association first-round match against No. 27 seed Cherryville was just to take care of business.
It’s what head coach Jordan Lovingood reminded her team of in the third set, as the Lady Ironmen had a 20-19 lead after the No. 6 seed Lady Bulldogs breezed through the first two sets. Cherryville’s Taylor Digh served an ace immediately after the timeout, but Murphy scored six of the next seven points to close out a three-set sweep (25-15, 25-13, 25-22).
The Lady Bulldogs (22-3 overall) hosted No. 11 seed Alleghany (19-4) in the second round after the Cherokee Scout’s press time Tuesday night.
“We’ve had a hard two weeks,” Lovingood said. “Really, our conference came down to those last couple games so there’s no time for rest. I knew coming off Wednesday that was a really hard game for us, five games. The main thing for today was stay healthy and get it done.”
While it’s officially survive-and-advance mode with the postseason, Murphy has been in that mode since early September. It had to win its last seven conference games to get a share of the regular season title with Robbinsville, then came back from a 2-0 deficit against the Lady Knights in the conference tournament final to win the conference outright and be seeded with other conference champions. Being in that mindset has helped simplify things.
“It keeps us hungry,” Lovingood said. “It’s easy to lose focus if you don’t have a common goal. At the end of the day we just gotta focus on what’s next.”
The Lady Bulldogs methodically won the first two sets of Saturday’s match. They scored the first four points of the first set before Cherryville responded with four of their own, but kept stringing points together to build a 19-9 lead. The Lady Ironmen hung in a little longer to start the second set, with Murphy leading 15-11 before an 8-0 run with Maddison Seabolt at the service line pushed the Lady Bulldogs to the brink of the second set win.
Cherryville did not have strong hitters, instead relying on good defense, placement and serving to generate points. That put some pressure on the Lady Bulldogs defense to be in the right spot and make sure they weren’t giving up easy points.
“Our supportiveness and our trust has gotten better,” Seabolt said. “I trust the fellow people on the back row to get the ball for me and they trust me and there’s a mutual trust and respect on our team.”
That scrappy play led to a tough third set, as Murphy couldn’t get into a rhythm until making the decisive run late.
Tuesday’s second-round match was likely a much tougher challenge. Alleghany actually finished ahead of Murphy in the 1A West RPI rankings that the NCHSAA uses to guide playoff seeding, but after finishing tied for first in the Northwest Conference with Mount Airy fell to the Granite Bears in the conference tournament. That dropped them from No. 5 in the RPI to the No. 11 seed, below other conference champions.
“We just gotta be us,” Lovingood said.
“What that is, is our defense has to continue improving and as soon as we get a good pass, we’re putting the ball down.”