Story and Photos by Rusty Ellis
The Cookeville Lady Cavs survived a tough first-round test against Wilson Central on Monday night, as CHS won 3-1 to advance in the District 7AAA Tournament.
The Lady Cavs landed the first blow of the match in the opening set, as they won 25-19 to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
Wilson Central wouldn’t go away quietly however, as they got off to hot start and took a 10-3 lead in the second set. Cookeville battled back to eventually take a lead at 23-21, but Wilson Central scored the final four points of the frame to knot the match up at 1-1.
The third set was similar to the second in that Wilson Central once again got off to a fast start and built a 15-9 lead over the Lady Cavs. This time however, Cookeville took the lead and never looked back in a 25-22 win to move within one set of advancing.
And advance they did, as the Lady Cavs claimed a 25-17 win in the fourth set to clinch the 3-1 victory.
It served as first-year head coach Chris Bell’s first postseason win with the Lady Cavs, though he would tell you it was far from their best performance.
“I’m proud of them because tonight was not our night in any way,” Bell said. “We didn’t give up, and we found a way…sometimes we have a bad habit of getting into the mindset of taking a break…everybody was putting the pieces together, and we survived and advanced.”
The win means Cookeville will get a date with second-seeded Lebanon on Tuesday at 7 P.M., a team that Bell knows his team has had mixed results against.
“We played them twice in districts and another time in a tournament,” Bell said. “We’ve got business to take care of, we know they’re a good team…as long as we play our game and we keep fighting, we should be good.”
