Lady Eagles Win Over Walker Valley In 4 Sets Before Falling to Cleveland in 3 Sets
10/8/24
Cleveland, TN -- Rhea County High School earned a spot in the district championship in 3A-District 5 post season tournament held in Cleveland. Lady Eagles won match vs Walker valley in 4 sets. That earned Lady Eagles a matchup with two-time reining champion Cleveland who had won both matches with the Lady Eagles during the year. Cleveland won in 3 sets to earn the championship and the opportunity to host the opening round of region play. Lady Eagles will travel to East Hamilton on Monday, October 14, 2024 to play against another powerhouse in East Hamilton. Lady Eagles played East Hamilton earlier in the season and lost in 2 sets, 25-14 and 25-10. East Hamilton has a record of 27-8 and the Lady Eagles have a record of 15-20. Cleveland with their 31-10 record will host Bradley Central on 10/14/24. Cleveland won both matches with Bradley this year.
Coach Stephanie Poe said, "We played East Hamilton once this season and they won. We definitely didn't play our best game. East Hamilton has 9 good experienced seniors. It's going to be a hard fought matcc. We will give it all we got."
"This team has been very coachable.I feel like there has been a huge difference from where we are from where we started. They have listend and worked to get better."
"Tonight we came out strong in first set against Walker Valley and then got a little complacent in game two. We talked and they got back to playing strong the next two sets to win the match."
"Against Cleveland, we played very well the first set. I think we had a dropoff, but played close in third set and we represented well against a very good team."
| Team | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 |
| Walker Valley | 17 | 26 | 7 | 16 |
| Rhea County | 25 | 24 | 25 | 25 |
| Team | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 |
| Rhea County | 21 | 7 | 15 |
| Cleveland | 25 | 25 | 25 |
Three Lady Eagles were selected to the All-District team for the season. Kamryn Swafford, Erin Stolz and Kirra Garmany were selected.
Three Lady Eagles were selected to the All-District team for the Tournament. Kamyrn Swafford, Erin Stolz and Brinlee Thurman were selected to the team.
Volleyball Facts:
Cleveland won the 2022 and 2023 State Championships with a combined record of 91-13.
Fact from the past. Girls’ volleyball was first sanctioned as a TSSAA sport for the 1976-1977 school year, and the Kirkman High School Hawks out of Chattanooga became the first-ever TSSAA Girls’ Volleyball State Champions. They would go on to win 4 more in a row. Kirkman school is out of Chattanooga Tennesssee and closed in 1991.