Davis
Hiwassee Dam – The Lady Eagles volleyball team dropped its first set to Highlands on Oct. 18, but stormed back to win the next three and the Little Smoky Mountain Conference championship.
Unfortunately for fans at The Nest, Hiwassee Dam fell to Eastern Randolph in the first round of state 1A playoffs at home Saturday to finish the season at 10-15 overall.
The Lady Eagles defeated Nantahala in the first round of the LSMC tournament before coming back a day later to beat Highlands 3-1 (18-25, 25-15, 25-13, 25-13).
“We’ve come a long way,” head coach Angie Davis said. “Injuries hit us in the middle of the season, and we struggled through it, but we had a pretty good season.”
All 10 players on the varsity squad contributed, but Davis singled out Olivia McNabb, Brinkley Payne and Madison Shorette for exemplary play. Since two of those three, and six players overall, will be returning next season, the coach said this year’s young team will be more experienced and capable of going farther.
“We worked this year on building the program,” Davis said. “We’ll be able to move forward much quicker next year.”
Conference awards will be announced at the conclusion of the state playoffs. Team awards will be announced during a spring banquet.