Murphy – After straight set wins over Hiwassee Dam (25-13, 25-16, 25-10) and Blue Ridge Early College (25-17, 25-12 25-19), the Lady Bulldogs looked like they were about to do the same to Cherokee.
They topped the Lady Braves, 25-8 in the first set, but Cherokee made them work the rest of the match. The Lady Braves won the second set 25-15, before Murphy recovered to win the next two sets, 25-19 and 25-14 to win the match in four sets.
“You want games that make you better,” head coach Jordan Lovingood said.
It was a good test for Murphy (12-1 overall, 6-0 Big Smoky Mountain Conference), which has three road games this week. The Lady Bulldogs traveled to Highlands on Oct. 4 and Oct. 5, results of which were not available until after this week’s edition of the Cherokee Scout went to press. They play at Robbinsville on Thursday.
After entering this season without a Big Smoky Mountain conference win since 2012, Cherokee (8-8, 3-3) has been one of the better teams in the conference. The Lady Braves played Murphy tough in a straight-set win at Cherokee on Aug. 31, and were better this time. The Lady Braves couldn’t match the Lady Bulldogs height, but we’re scrappy on the defensive end and rarely quit on a rally.
“They’re defense is amazing,” Murphy junior Olivia Payne said. “They’re not a hard-hitting team, but they know exactly where to place it and they’re extremely smart, they study up on every team and you can definitely tell.”
Luckily for the Lady Bulldogs, Cailey Dockery returned against Cherokee after missing the last three games, and her presence helped match the Lady Braves play on the defensive end.
The Lady Bulldogs were firing on all cylinders in the first set, scoring the first five points before rolling to an easy set win. That negatively impacted the second set, where Murphy looked more relaxed and Cherokee started playing up to its potential. The Lady Bulldogs didn’t score more than two straight points, had several unforced errors and were on the wrong side of some long rallies.
“We can get cocky sometimes, and we can let it slip out of our hands,” Payne said. “But after that second set we came back in there, got our heads right and knew what we had to do.”
Murphy jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the third set, only for Cherokee to crawl its way back in and take a 14-13 lead. The Lady Bulldogs righted the ship to win the third set and never trailed in the fourth, which they won comfortably.
The game comes at a good time for Murphy, which has another three games in four days stretch this week. Highlands is the top team in the Little Smoky Mountain Conference and would probably be in the top half of the Big Smoky Mountain Conference. Robbinsville is the second-best team in the conference, and though the Lady Bulldogs swept them on Sept. 15, all three sets were competitive before Murphy made the decisive run.
As they have been all year, Murphy looks ready for whatever comes its way.
“I actually just told the girls in the locker room, you can enjoy this win but at the same time next week we have three big games,” Lovingood said. “They’ll be big tests for us.”