Impressive first two sets lead No. 17 Walters State to sweep of Chattanooga State

MORRISTOWN, TN – There's not a lot of junior college volleyball teams around that are playing as well as the Walters State volleyball team has played to start the season.

The Lady Senators have dropped just three sets this season, none at home, and have yet to come even close to dropping a match.

And on Thursday evening, they continued that domination.

Facing Chattanooga State, No. 17 Walters State easily cruised through the first two sets of the match before having to gut out a third set victory, sweeping the Lady Tigers 3-0 (25-11,25-12,27-25) for the third time this season.

"The first two sets were pretty solid," Walters State coach Megan Blaylock said. "We got off to kind of a slow start, but we recovered. We're just trying to get them to understand that this is the type of team we should beat if we put the effort in behind it."

With the win, Walters State improves to 10-0 on the season and 8-0 in conference play. The victory on Thursday night clinched at least a tie for first place for the regular season in the conference.

The Lady Senators started off with a bang as they got up 5-0 thanks to an Olivia Oxendine kill and back-to-back aces from Amanda Singleton. Chattanooga managed to play themselves back into the match for a bit and made it 6-4. However, following a timeout, the Lady Senators took over and got their lead to 17-6 before you could blink. Chattanooga State could not come back from such a large deficit as Walters State cruised to an easy 25-11 victory.

With the first set win, the Lady Senators are a perfect 10-0 in first sets this season, a huge momentum shifter when a team can come out and consistently get off to strong starts.

"That's great," Blaylock said. "That's hard to do. I think it's a testament to the girls and how serious they take it. When they step on the court, they're ready to play."

Set two saw much of the same from the Lady Senators as they built a 6-1 lead. From there, Walters State made sure that the Lady Tigers couldn't climb their way back into the set as their lead never got below five points. The Lady Senators scored the final three points of the set to take it 25-12.

With a comfortable lead, Blaylock tried a few different rotations in the third set and Chattanooga State hung around and led for much of the set. The two teams traded points throughout but, with the score tied at 21, Walters State rallied for three straight points. With match point on the line, the Lady Tigers fought back and tied the match up. However, after a few back-and-forths, the Lady Senators took the final set for the victory.

"Right now, we're trying to balance getting the sophomores playing time, getting the freshmen on the floor so they have some experience for next year and still trying to win," Blaylock said. "Trying to balance all of that is working out pretty well."

UP NEXT:

Walters State faces their biggest test of the season on Friday as they get set to take on Spartanburg Methodist and Wallace State. Wallace State is 13-0 and ranked No.19 in DI NJCAA volleyball. The Spartanburg Methodist match begins at 2:30 p.m. with the Wallace State match following at 5 p.m.

"That'll be the hardest competition we have faced all season," Blaylock said. "It'll be good for us to see something outside of our conference play against two very well-rounded teams. Tomorrow will show our weaknesses a little more than normal, so it'll be great for us in the long run to see what we need to work on."

Rob Harvey

Walters State Community College

Sports Information Director

Cell: (423) 779-8880

Email: sportsinfo@ws.edu

Website: www.ws.edu/athletics