MARYVILLE – It's Maryville vs. Huntingdon one more time.
Second-seeded Maryville dispatched seventh-seeded LaGrange 3-0 here Tuesday night in the CCS Volleyball Tournament Quarterfinals. It was Maryville's 13th consecutive victory and the second Scots win against the Panthers in the last four days.
Maryville prevailed by the set scores of 25-8, 25-17 and 25-7 to improve to 22-8 overall. LaGrange's season ends at 4-23.
The Scots now face third-seeded Huntingdon on Friday at 4 p.m. atop Lookout Mountain. The winner of that matchup advances to Saturday's 3 p.m. championship tilt.
Maryville and Huntingdon split the regular season series. The Scots let a 2-0 lead slip away Oct. 1 in Montgomery and fell 3-2 to the host Hawks. Then on Oct. 22, Maryville returned the favor by rallying from a 2-0 deficit to upend Huntingdon 3-2 in Macon.
That win boosted Maryville to 7-0 this season on neutral floors, which is the semifinal setting for Friday at Covenant. The Maryville-Huntingdon winner gets the winner of Covenant and Berea.
Tuesday night, five different Scots registered at least five kills, led by six from
Isabella Samson.
Amii Ingalls,
Brooklyn Wallet,
Reese Bailey and
Hannah Kammer added five apiece. LaGrange's Jharia Harris tied for game honors with six kills for the Panthers.
"We played with purpose tonight," Maryville head coach
Kandis Schram said. We distributed the offense and got different people minutes. We will start preparing again tomorrow. Any team still in the tournament could take it."
The only two ties in the match came in Set 1 at 5-5 and 6-6. After that, Maryville reeled off six points in a row and never looked back. LaGrange put 17 points on the board in Set 2, which equaled their high-water mark from Saturday's loss to the Scots.
Maryville then held LaGrange to just seven points in the finale to win for the 10th straight time against the Panthers.
The Scots went 1-1 against each of the three remaining teams in the tournament, splitting against Huntingdon (27-8), Covenant (19-11) and Berea (21-8). Now it takes wins in back-to-back rubber matches to claim the inaugural Collegiate Conference of the South Volleyball Tournament trophy.
Tune in Friday afternoon.
