Lady Knights on quest for piece of divisional title
Andrews – On paper, it’s a simple-enough ask: you have three matches left, so win out.
But a quick scan of the remaining schedule on that same piece of paper will quickly reveal how daunting that task will be for the Robbinsville Lady Knights.
Since returning to Smoky Mountain Conference play with a 4-set loss at Swain County (15-4, 4-3) on Sept. 21, Robbinsville (13-5, 5-2) has been swept by the current first-place holders, Cherokee (15-3, 7-0); before knocking off Murphy (9-7, 3-4) in a 5-set home thriller Sept. 28 and toppling Andrews (7-9, 0-7) in four sets Tuesday.
Wedged in-between was a return match from the Aug. 14 season opener, a 3-0 loss at Franklin (18-1) on Monday.
The race to the finish line goes through Hayesville (6-11, 2-5) tonight; the home finale Tuesday – which will also include 8th Grade, Pink, Youth and Senior Night festivities – against Swain County; and the regular season wrap-up Thursday, Oct. 12 at Cherokee.
In other words, standing between the Lady Knights — and a taste of the conference title they are actively defending — are the always-competitive Lady Jackets, and the two very programs to defeat Robbinsville in divisional play this season.
Series’ clinched
The recent stretch began with a visit from Murphy, which resulted in a wild 18-25, 25-19, 25-23, 19-25, 8-15 win for Robbinsville.
Bulldogs senior Maddison Seabolt established a dominant front-row presence early in set one, but Aubrie Wachacha’s lethal serves – mixed with Claire Barlow’s powerful kills at the midpoint of the segment helped the Knights reserve their fortunes, going on a 4-0 run to pull ahead 10-12. As the set came to a close, Delaney Brooms and Suri Watty combined forces for spikes and serves that kept Murphy reeling.
Cayla Gear and Seabolt posted back-to-back blocks in the waning moments of set two to maintain the Lady Bulldogs’ advantage. In set three, Robbinsville set on the cusp of a 2-1 match lead before Murphy went on a 10-2 sprint to swing the contest in its favor.
Now playing from behind, the Lady Knights’ recouped the losses with solid communication, passes – and more of the same from senior Wachacha at the service line. She finished with eight aces in the affair.
Playing its second 5-set affair of the week, Murphy crumbled in the tiebreaker. Lailee Holloway and Seabolt posted return errors that Robbinsville was more than willing to reap the benefits of, using an 8-0 dash to open a 3-11 lead that the Lady Bulldogs could do little about.
Fired up on senior night Tuesday, Andrews provided much more fight against Robbinsville than in recent memory. The Lady Knights extinguished a 5-6 Wildcats lead quickly in set one to win, 25-17; and Wachacha’s aces early in set two established an 8-0 run, which quickly spiraled into a 25-14 nod.
Winless in conference play this year, Andrews picked up its first set victory over Robbinsville since sweeping the Lady Knights at home Oct. 4, 2016 – almost seven years to the day before Tuesday’s match occurred.
The Lady Knights fell victim to misfortunes, errors and simply could not get on the same page as the 23-25 stanza came to a close.
Robbinsville flipped the script in set four, however and displayed a scowl while finishing off the hosts, 25-13.
The Knights were unable to get any momentum going in Monday’s visit to Macon County, falling in a sweep to the 3A Franklin Panthers on their senior night: 17-25, 14-25, 14-25.
JV, middle school
Robbinsville kept its feeder system busy over the last week, as well.
The JV Lady Knights (2-13) dropped a 25-14, 25-20 match to Murphy; an 8-25, 12-25 visit to Franklin; and a tough 23-25, 25-16, 12-15 nod to Andrews.
Openers to the conference-exclusive tilts this week saw Robbinsville (7-3) fall 20-25, 25-17, 15-7 to Murphy; but prevail 25-10, 19-25, 15-12 against the Wildcats.