By Michael Lindsay
The Cumberland County Lady Jet volleyball team avenged an early-season loss to Smith County Thursday evening as they defeated the Lady Owls on senior night, 3-1.
Lady Jet seniors Anna Fusco and Grace Christian were honored prior to Thursday’s game.
“I’m very proud of the way the seniors stepped up,” said Cumberland County head coach Roger Dixon. “We’ve had some problems finishing on senior night in the past, but they came out with the right attitude tonight.”
Cumberland County won the first two sets 25-14 and 26-24 before Smith County responded to win the third set, 25-15. The Lady Jets closed out the fourth set strong to win 25-14.
“They have a good team with some strong players,” Dixon said. “We put in a few things we thought would help us with this matchup and we were able to execute.”
The Lady Jets jumped out to a 9-1 lead in the first set and never let up as they opened the match with a 25-14 victory.
Cumberland County kept the momentum rolling in the second set as they held a 19-14 lead before Smith County went on a run to take a 21-20 lead via a Chloe Collins kill.
Smith County grew their lead to 23-20 before Cumberland County closed out the set on a 3-1 run to win the second set 26-24.
Facing a 2-0 deficit, Smith County took control of the third set to win it 25-15.
“We did the same thing to Watertown by getting up 2-0, but we allowed them to catch fire and get momentum to beat us 3-2,” Dixon said. “We used that as bulletin board material; no Déjà vu. We lost our confidence a little bit in that third set, but we got it back and refocused.”
The Lady Jets avoided a repeat of Watertown as they took control of the fourth set from the start as they took an 8-2 lead over Smith County.
That lead grew to 13-4 before the Lady Jets closed out the set to win 25-14 and take the match 3-1.
Thursday’s game wraps up the regular season for both teams. Cumberland County is set to travel to Watertown on Monday for the first round of the District 7AA tournament while Smith County will compete in the District 8A tournament next week.
