The Elizabethton and Happy Valley volleyball teams got to see the make up of this year’s Three Rivers Conference as they jumped started their season during a conference jamboree inside Sullivan East High School Thursday.

Lady Cyclones head coach Leslee Bradley took away many things Thursday night as she watched her team take on the competition, but the biggest thing she took away from the jamboree is the fact that Sullivan South, like in years past, will be the team to beat this season.

“It is definitely going to be a competitive conference,” Bradley said. “We didn’t get to really see Sullivan East at all tonight, but I am sure they are going to be a tough team. And Sullivan North is also going to be tough. But right now, South is the team to beat.”

Elizabethton started out their evening with a set against Sullivan North. The Lady Cyclones dropped the game 25-19. During that game, EHS senior Sarah Slagle had three kills and four digs, while sophomore Sydney Goodsell had two kills and three digs. Senior Madyson Smith recorded two aces against the Lady Raiders. Bradley said that the Lady Cyclones came out a little tight Thursday evening as they played Sullivan North.

“We were really tight,” Bradley said “I asked us to focus on certain aspects of the game, and I think they over worked that a little bit. We just came out tight because it is our first chance to represent against the conference. It has been a while since we have been on the court against another team.”

The Lady Warriors, who are in the first year of their programs existence, got a chance to see the type of teams they will be competing with this season as they took on Johnson County, Elizabethton and Sullivan East. Happy Valley head coach Bonnie Peters, who also coaches the Lady Warriors softball team, was happy with what she saw from her volleyball squad.

“We came in looking at it like a big practice,” Peters said. “I told them to just learn from it. As long as we got better from the first game to the last game, then we are doing something right. I thought we did some good things and learned some good things, and we just have to take everything into the rest of the season.”

For the Lady Cyclones, coach Bradley felt that their best game was against Sullivan South. Elizabethton dropped the set with Lady Rebels, 25-16, but Bradley feels the Lady Cyclones showed they could played at the same level as Sullivan South.

“We have always been a team that kind of plays at the level of our competition,” Bradley said. “We knew that South was going to hit the ball hard, so we dug in defensively, and we did an OK job defensively. We were smarter on our side, and I thought that was the best game that we played. Still, we let them go on runs of four to five points in a row, and we have to find away to stop those runs.”

The Lady Cyclones closed out the evening with a game against the Lady Warriors, and Bradley was impressed with what she saw from Happy Valley.

“It is impressive for a first-year team,” she said. “They are really doing some good things with the ball. They have some tough servers. They are athletic and they are going to learn the game quickly.”

On Monday, the Lady Cyclones will travel to Morristown East, while the Lady Warriors will head to Johnson County.