‘Canes stay hot, defeat Cocke County 3-1
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NEWPORT—Morristown East racked up its eighth straight volleyball victory Tuesday night with a 3-1 triumph over host Cocke County.
The Lady Hurricanes, who won six times in winning a tournament championship over the weekend, are now 11-3 for the season and 2-1 in District Two AAA action.
Cocke Country fell to 5-2 overall and 1-1 in district action.
East won the opening set by 25-18 and took the second set, 25-22. The Lady Red stayed alive with a 25-17 win before East cruised to a 25-13 rout to end the match.
Reagan Forester racked up 15 kills to lead the Lady ‘Canes and also served four aces while her younger sister, Riley, knocked down a dozen kills. Hailey Hall chipped in eight kills and Harmony Sullivan served up five aces and led the team in assists.
Shayna Williams topped Cocke County with six aces while Kamine Carmichael added six and Ellie Proffitt five.
First-year East coach Courtney Dotson said, “This was a good win for us. Cocke County has been playing really well.
They’re a scrappy team and got a lot of balls up. It was an important district game.
“I thought Reagan and Riley played well tonight,” added the coach. “They had to play all the way around tonight and they don’t normally have to do that. But LB (Lilabeth Jordan) was out tonight due to an injury.”
Dotson closed, :”Overall, I thought our defense could have been a little bit better. We’re still working on getting that block up. We really need to do that. But that fourth set was good volleyball by us.”
After the home team took the third set, the Lady Red grabbed a 10-8 lead in the fourth. But from that point, East had things its own way. The Lady ‘Canes took the lead with four straight points with Riley Forester and Hannah Hall getting kills and Reagan Forester serving an ace in the spurt.
After the Lady Red scored, East racked up four more behind kills by Sullivan and Riley Forester. The Lady ‘Canes were called for a net violation but responded by scoring eight more to take a commanding 24-12 lead.
Both Foresters and Hailey Hall had two kills each in the long run and Sullivan served a pair of aces. Hailey Hall’s kill ended the match.
In the opening set, Sullivan served an aced to start the match and East grabbed a quick 4-1 lead. The Lady ‘Canes led the entire set.
Cocke County fought back within one at 12-11 but East pulled out to an 18-15 spread as Hannah Hall had consecutive kills. MacKenzie Jarnagin and Riley Forester had two kills each down the stretch.
East almost blew a huge lead in the second set. The Lady ‘Canes broke out of a 7-7 tie with six straight points that featured three straight aces by Reagan Forester and the lead grew to 18-10 before the Lady Red scored eight straight to tie and then took a 21-19 lead.
But Jarnagin put down a kill, Reagan Forester added two in a row and Hannah Hall added another as East regained control and closed the set with a 6-1 run.
A pair of five-point sprees got the Lady Red off to a 10-5 lead in the third set. East battled back to tie the set at 13-13 before Williams and McKenzie Stuart had kills and Jacee Smith served an ace to spark a 6-1 run.
The home team closed out the set with a four-point run as Williams had a kill and Proffitt served an ace.

