Lady Cyclones run out of steam in season opener against Greeneville
Published 10:54 pm Tuesday, August 17, 2021
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders After a quick side-out on the first serve by the Lady Greene Devils, Elizabethton’s Cheyenne Poiroux (1) delivers two aces to give the Lady Cyclones an early lead.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders Elizabethton’s Gracie Kirsch (14) serves an ace late in the first set of the match with the Lady Greene Devils.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders The Lady Cyclones Krisalyn Elliott (23) leaps high at the net and delivers a kill that brings Elizabethton to within one point of Greeneville 20-21 in the first set of the match.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders Elizabethton’s Gracie Kirsch (14) and Krisalyn Elliott (23) go up at the net to try and block a shot by the Lady Greene Devils Alesha Pace(3). The spike goes over the block but land out of bounds for a side-out for the Lady Cyclones.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders The Lady Cyclones Mattie Davis (4) fires a return shot over the net from near mid-court.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders The Lady Cyclones Karie Merritt (11) returns the ball over the net from close range.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders Lady Cyclone senior Grace Martin (6) digs in to setup her teammates on a Greeneville serve.
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BY AUSTIN ALEXANDER
STAR CORRESPONDENT
ELIZABETHTON- Monday night brought a new season of volleyball to Elizabethton High School. Following a 2020 campaign that was lackluster, things weren’t going to be getting any easier as the Cyclones enter this season with only one senior (Mattie Davis) on the whole roster.
A stout test against Greeneville wasn’t the kindest way to kick off the 2021 season, but it’s what the Cyclones had. Despite a strong effort, the Green Devils proved too much winning in straight sets 3-0.
The match began with three straight points to the Cyclones including two aces from junior Cheyenne Poiroux and the girls looked to be feeling quite comfortable. But a quick rally from Greeneville quickly put them in the lead.
The two teams battled back and forth for the next few points with Elizabethton knotting things up on two separate occasions, but then the Lady Green Devils established a three-point lead that would grow to six before being burst down to three again.
This cycle would continue until the Cyclones would pull to within one point behind some great serves from Davis. But it wasn’t quite enough with the girls from Greene County taking set one, 25-21.
Set two was a close one throughout with both teams exchanging the lead back and forth with neither team allowing the other to get more than a four or five-point lead.
The set brought 11 ties and 12 lead changes as each team threw their own haymakers. There were some great rallies between the teams and some noticeable great efforts from Jayci Bowers and Makiah Williams during the set.
Elizabethton would hold a lead for the majority of the second half of the set, but some strong Greeneville serves clawed the Green Devils level at 21.
Following another tie at 22, the Green Devils would never look back winning the set, 25-23.
The third set was much more skewed than the first two as a dejected Cyclone team looked spent having put in such a great effort in the previous sets, but having nothing to show for it.
The Lady Cyclones didn’t lay down and die either, but an overall tough set for them saw an end to the match as Greeneville took the set, 25-13.
Though it was a straight-set loss, the Cyclones really did deserve more out of the match than what they got.
A young team, the ladies already seem to have a little more promise than past iterations of the squad. Smiles stayed on many of the faces of the girls and as the season goes on, it won’t be surprising to see this team win a good sum of games.
JV SCORE
25 25 GREENEVILLE
18 14 ELIZABETHTON
