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Morristown East was rolling along toward its ninth straight volleyball victory Thursday night at Isenburg-Siler Gym when visiting Jefferson County took advantage of Lady Hurricanes mistakes to rack up a 27-25 third set victory.

The Lady Patriots then appeared on their way to forcing a decisive fifth set as they built a 17-11 advantage in the fourth set. However, the unforced errors came to an end and Reagan Forester and Hannah Hall led a rally that produced a 25-18 win and a 3-1 victory.

With the victory, the Lady Hurricanes improved to 12-3 for the season and upped their District Two 3-A worksheet to 3-1. Jefferson County is now 0-3 in the district and 3-4 overall.

Forester and Hall knocked down five kills each as East closed out the match with a 14-1 run.

Forester collected a season-high 23 kills in the victory with her sister Riley adding a dozen and Hall nine. Harmony Sullivan served four aces and had at least 30 assists in the win. Hall also had four aces and Hailey Hall added a pair.

Hailey Potts banged 10 kills for the Lady Patriots with Kenzi Leckie adding seven. Kaylee Daniels had three aces for the visitors.

East coach Courtney Dotson said, “We played well in the first two sets for a good lead but it became a struggle for us in the third set.

“We’ve talked about having to focus on every set,” she added. “When we got out there, people want to beat us every single night. We were wanting to do that but sometimes when we start making mistakes, it just goes down hill from there.”

Dotson was happy with the comeback in the final set. “That was good rally. But we just had a ton of unforced errors tonight.

“Whenever we’re attacking the ball, we play well. But if we’re just tipping and giving the other team free balls all the time we’re just not able to block well enough to stop the other team.”

East plays at David Crockett on Tuesday before hosting cross-town rival West on Thursday. The Lady ‘Canes lost to both of those teams in their first meetings.

Sullivan served three aces as East opened the match by scoring the first six points. Riley Forester had two kills in that stretch and the Lady ‘Canes pulled away to a 14-5 spread.

Jefferson battled back within 21-14 but Riley Forester nailed a kill and Hannah Hall blocked two straight shots before a kill by Reagan Forester ended the set.

The second set had six ties with the final coming at 7-7 before Riley Forester had two kills and Sullivan served another ace as East pulled out to a 12-8 lead.

It was still close at 21-18 but two kills by Reagan Forester and two hitting errors by the visitors gave the Lady Hurricanes the win.

East struggled in the third set as they committed five service errors and 11 unforced hitting errors in the loss. Jefferson County used a 9-1 run that saw it have just one winner in the spurt with the rest coming on Lady Hurricane mistakes and grabbed an 18-12 margin.

The Lady ‘Canes righted the ship and caught up at 21-21. Kills by Reagan Forester and Hailey Hall gave East a 24-22 lead before the Lady Patriots used a 5-1 run to end the set. All the points by both teams in that closing spurt were scored on mistakes by the other side.

Jefferson took a big lead with five straight points for an 11-4 margin in the final set. A pair of aces by Daniels led the way.

However, the Lady Hurricanes played very well from that point on and captured the victory.