By Michael Lindsay
Cumberland County High School will raise a volleyball district championship banner for the first time in school history as the Lady Jets defeated Stone Memorial in Tuesday’s District 7-2A championship.
“At the beginning of the season, I told the girls to look at the rafters and asked them if they saw any volleyball banners,” said Cumberland County head coach Rodney Howard. “I told them that’s going to change this season and it starts with us. They worked and it’s all paid off. I can’t say enough about these girls; they have a fighters’ mentality and you can’t teach that.”
The Lady Jets defeated Stone Memorial in 5 sets with the fifth set finishing within 2 points at 15-13.
Earlier in the day, the Lady Jets defeated Upperman in the semifinals in 4 sets while Stone Memorial defeated Watertown to secure a district championship matchup and Region 4-2A tournament berth for both Crossville programs.
Cumberland County won the first set over Stone Memorial 27-25 before the Lady Panthers bounced back to take the second set, 25-22.
The Lady Jets won the third set 25-19 before Stone Memorial won the fourth by a 25-11 margin, forcing a winner-take-all fifth set to 15.
“About halfway through the fourth set, they (Stone) was up 15-7 and I put some other girls in to save some legs,” said Howard. “We rotated in and had enough in the tank to finish it.”
Stone Memorial took a 7-4 lead in the fifth set via a Lucy Grothe kill and back-to-back Lady Jet errors. Cumberland County chipped away at the lead and tied the match at 9-9 via a Dalayna Inman kill.
“We didn’t stay down,” said Howard. “We got right back up and stayed on.”
After trading points, the Lady Jets took a 12-11 lead via a Mallary Woodard kill. Stone Memorial kept their deficit at one point trailing 14-13 before Cumberland County junior Tessa Hayes delivered a kill from the middle to secure the Lady Jets’ first district championship in school history via a 15-13 win in the fifth set.
“It’s all very surreal right now,” said Howard. “We see banners all over the gym and now we’ve got us one.”
Dalayna Inman was named District 7-2A tournament MVP.
The district championship victory improves the Lady Jets to 31-7 overall in 2024, just one season after winning 2 games in 2023 and going winless in district play.
Both Cumberland County and Stone Memorial will compete in the Region 4-2A tournament on Tuesday, Oct. 15 at Central Magnet School in Murfreesboro. Cumberland County will face Community High School while Stone Memorial will play Central Magnet, game times TBD.
