Eagleville blocks Watertown's drive for five
Oct. 16—WATERTOWN — There was a time five or more years ago a Watertown volleyball team would have been happy to win district and region and reach the sectional, even if the Lady Purple Tigers fell short of the state tournament.
The program has gone well past that.
Eagleville came to Watertown on Thursday night and promptly put a stop to the Lady Tigers' plans for a fifth straight state tournament appearance with a 25-23, 25-17, 25-20 sectional stunner Thursday night.
The first game was a back-and-forth affair with neither team able to put away the other until Eagleville scored three straight to turn a 19-18 deficit to a 21-19 lead. The second and third games were rarely that close, though Watertown did rally from an 8-4 third-game deficit to pull even at 10-10 and 11-11.
But the Lady Eagles dug up Watertown's kill attempts while the Lady Tigers were unable to go on sustained runs. Eagleville's confidence was building as the team from Rutherford County, which lost to WHS 3-0 earlier in the season, punched its first state tournament ticket since 2015.
"Their momentum was building," Watertown coach Stephanie Harman said after her first season with the Lady Tigers ended at 33-12. "They had a great crowd. This is a totally different team from the one we had seen earlier in the year. I'm not sure if we went in overconfident or if it was nerves and were scared to make mistakes, especially after that first set.
"They brought their game tonight... Serving tonight hurt us. We missed tons of serves tonight. We could never seem to get our serving going tonight... They played defense great. They didn't let a lot drop. They didn't make a lot of mistakes. We were the ones who made the most errors."
Four Lady Tiger seniors — Alit Tunks, Gala Holbrooks, Morgan Brown and Abby Parkerson — whose first three seasons ended in the state tournament, including finishing as the state runner up in 2019, finished their high school volleyball careers that night.
"Great seniors will be missed dearly next year," said Harman, who took over for program founder Brandy Holcomb this year. "They leave some big shoes to fill. I've coached a lot of players over my time and they're some of the best athletes that I've probably had.
"We just couldn't get it going tonight."
