By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director

CENTRE – The Cherokee County Lady Warriors have been looking for the right volleyball combination all season long.

They might have just found it at the right time.

Behind a 5-1 floor alignment, the Lady Warriors won their third straight Cherokee County Tournament championship Monday night at Richard Lindsey Arena in Centre. They swept Spring Garden 25-11, 25-19 and 25-14 to improve to 26-11 on the season.

“We’ve been doing a lot of changing, moving people around, trying different things,” Lady Warrior head coach Tiffany Rieger said. “We ran a 6-2, then a 5-1, went back to a 6-2, and now we’re running a 5-1 with a different setter.

“We tried that Saturday (at Sand Rock) for the first time. The girls really liked it. They said they felt really comfortable doing it. Mattie (Green) did a great job running the offense. Sydni (Frost) did a great job playing libero. Our hitters were clicking with Mattie. We were getting balls up. They wanted to stick with it and I liked what I saw. We just ran it again tonight and it worked well.”

So well in fact that Spring Garden (17-12) had a tough time establishing any sort of rhythm Monday night.

“We were just trying to contain their hitters,” Lady Panther coach Madison Bates said. “When you’re facing more than one hitter at a time it’s hard to keep up with who’s coming where, whether they’re coming from the outside, the middle or the right side. They swing at the ball, and they’ve got some good servers too.”

Green collected 28 assists, seven digs, four aces and a kill for the Lady Warriors. Ava Haygood posted 16 kills and four digs. Jolie Alexander accumulated six kills, five aces, four digs and an assist. Taniya Fife contributed 11 digs, five kills and three aces. Harleigh Henry had three digs, two kills, an ace and an assist.

Frost delivered nine digs. Anna Morris managed two kills and two digs. Mary Charlotte Allen finished with a pair of digs.

Addie Word led Spring Garden (17-12) with eight kills. Aubrey Kelley contributed seven kills and six assists. Lleyton Carroll came away with 19 assists, seven digs and an ace.

Addie Smith posted 10 digs. Maya Jennings managed three kills. Kylie Bates delivered two kills and a dig. Lacie Jo McMurray had a dig and an ace. Gracie Simpson finished with three digs.

Both head coaches feel Monday’s championship match has helped prepare them for the stretch run of the season.

“It’s a good time to be getting better, Rieger said. “Any time you come away with a trophy it’s a confidence booster. We’ve got some good teams in our county. It’s always good fun and friendly competition.

“Spring Garden is a good team. I was impressed with No. 2 (Jennings) Saturday and her blocking. Number 4 (Kelley) was swinging well. It’s a good win to get. They’re always scrappy. They always hustle. That’s what I told our kids. You know they’re going to scrap with you. You know they’re going to keep the ball alive. We’ve just got to keep our composure, keep swinging and limit our mistakes.”

“We still play them two or three more times and that’s good for us, especially with what we’ll see in 1A down the road,” Bates added.