MOSHEIM — Cocke County defeated the West Greene Lady Buffaloes 20-25, 25-17, 18-25, 25-17, 15-12 in volleyball on Monday.
“We knew that they were a good team coming out,” West Greene coach Raven Borie said. “We knew that it was going to be a little more competitive. It was hard, especially coming in on a Monday. I feel like we had our rough moments, but overall, we didn’t give up. We fought.”
Before Monday’s match, the Lady Buffs had won five straight, including three sweeps. Cocke County was able to push the young West Greene team and force them into long volleys, which even experienced teams can struggle with.
“They’re fighters,” Borie said about her team. “They don’t give up, I’ll say that. Sometimes we just get a little frustrated and a little in our heads. We’re fairly young. At times, we’ll have three or four freshmen on the court. I think we’ve gotten better with that over the season, but we’ve still got some work to do.”
In the opening set, Cocke County kept pace. But with the set tied 17-17, West Greene pulled away.
A tap by Journey Lamons and a block by Addy Peters gave West Greene a 19-17 lead.
The teams exchanged points with West Greene holding a 20-19 advantage. The Lady Buffs closed with a 5-1 run that was highlighted by a Chloe Brown ace and capped by a Cassidy Hill kill for the 25-20 win.
“They gave us a few points and that really helped boost our momentum,” Borie said. “We played with a little more confidence and we were able to put it away.”
West Greene tied the second set 4-4 on kills by Braelynn Willis and Morgan Moody, but the majority of the Lady Buffs' attacks hit the net or flew out of bounds.
Cocke County took advantage. Leading 6-5, the Lady Red outscored the Lady Buffs 10-1 to make it 16-6.
Willis scored two of the next three West Greene points on a block and a tap, but Cocke County responded with four straight points for a 20-9 lead.
The Lady Buffs found life late, but Cocke County’s lead was too much. The Lady Red tied the match 1-1 with a 25-17 win.
“We were just giving them points, making mistakes,” Borie said.
The third set was a mirror of the first. West Greene jumped ahead but was unable to take a lead larger than three points.
With West Greene leading 13-11, a block by Peters sparked a five-point run that pushed the Lady Buffs to an 18-11 lead. During that stretch, Peters and Hill each had a kill and Aleea Aiken added a point with a push down the line.
Cocke County pulled within 18-14, but Peters hammered two more kills and served an ace to keep the momentum with West Greene. From there, the Lady Buffs coasted to the 25-18 win.
Set four was all Cocke County.
The Lady Red jumped to an 11-6 lead off more West Greene mistakes.
West Greene managed a trio of points with Peters serving back-to-back aces, but that was one of few highlights for the Lady Buffs.
Hill and Moody added consecutive kills late in the set for West Greene, but Cocke County tied the match 2-2 with a 25-17 win.
Cocke County carried momentum into the fifth set, jumping to 7-1 and 10-3 leads. West Greene clawed back within 12-10, getting blocks from Hill and Peters and kills from Lamons and Peters.
Hill had two more kills down the stretch, but it wasn't enough as Cocke County closed the match with a 15-12 win.
Hill led West Greene with 19 kills, and also made 20 digs and two blocks. Peters finished with 12 kills, two blocks and four aces; Morgan Brown had 24 digs; Lamons had 10 digs and eight kills; and Aiken had 42 assists, 15 digs and two kills.
West Greene, now 12-7, will host Hancock County at 6 p.m. Thursday.
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