Story and Photos by Rusty Ellis
The Lady Cavs battled all night, but fell short in the district 7AAA championship to Mt. Juliet by a final score of 3-0 (25-23, 28-26, 26-24).
The 3-0 score isn’t indicative of just how close the game was, as in the second set, Cookeville trailed 24-19 at one point. They proceeded to score the next four points to force Mt. Juliet to score more to win the set, but the Lady Cavs fell short 28-26 in the set.
In a game where each point mattered, head coach Lucas Martin believes that Mt. Juliet simply showed more desire to win the match.
“They wanted it more than we did, plain and simple,” Martin said. “They finished, we didn’t.”
It was the first time in three matches that Mt. Juliet has defeated Cookeville, but Martin is also quick to point out the quality of the team his girls played against.
“No,” Martin said when asked if he was surprised. “No surprise whatsoever. That’s a really good team.”
While the Lady Cavs fell just short for the district championship, they still clinched a spot in the region tournament thanks to their win over Green Hill on Tuesday. After that win, Martin said he was just pleased to make it out of the district with how tough it is.
He echoed those sentiments on Wednesday.
“I’m still happy we’re moving forward,” Martin said. “Our road’s a little harder where we’re at now, but if we win our first one, (Mt. Juliet) is who we’re going to see in the finals.”
As far as what he wants to improve before their next contest, Martin’s answer was pretty simple.
“We need to eliminate our mistakes much earlier, and not get down on ourselves,” Martin said. “We’re at a point in the season and in the playoffs where with the level of play that we’re seeing that you can’t make that many mistakes and expect to win.”
