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Morristown West played from behind for much of Thursday’s District 2-AAA match against Cocke County.

However, when they needed it, the Lady Trojans turned their game up on their way to a 3-1 win (25-22, 23-25, 25-19, 28-26).

“Tonight we had to work hard to earn the win,” West coach Lacey Evans said. “Part of the night we were having to dig ourselves out of holes caused by making mistakes and errors. My biggest thing is I don’t want them to be complacent and sometimes we get in those spots where we get a lead and we do become complacent. We just need to keep working on that and power through.”

With the victory, Morristown West improved to 7-1 on the season. The win also moved them to 3-0 in district play, sitting on top as the only undefeated team.

“I’m very pleased with how we’ve started conference play,” Evans said. “I want us to just continue to pludge through and take it game-by-game and hopefully we continue this winstreak.”

It was team-effort for the Lady Trojans in Thursday evening’s win. Stat leaders included Emma Miller with 22 assists and four aces, Haley Cabe with three aces, 13 kills and 13 digs, Brie Blevins with nine kills and six blocks, Aubrie Messer with six kills and six blocks, Sydney Price with 21 assists, Kenzie Collins with 24 digs, Chloe Seals with 23 digs and Emmah Long with nine kills.

Messer, specifically, came up big for the Lady Trojans at the beginning of the match and then at the end with a couple kills down the stretch.

“Aubrie started out strong and ended the night very well just playing aggressive and hitting hard,” Evans said.

Things started off strong for West as they scored five of the first six points of the opening set. Cocke County would fight back and made it 9-6 but a kill by Blevins and an ace by Collins gave West the momentum right back.

West would carry that momentum for much of the remainder of the set as they got up 18-11 after a kill by Bella Forte. But once again the Lady Red would not go away and closed the gap to 20-17. The West lead got all the way down to two at 24-22, but West scored the final point to take the set.

In the second set, West came out firing again as Blevins had multiple blocks and Miller and Messer had aces. The lead was 17-9 after a block by Blevins, but Cocke County turned the set on its head after as they came all the way back and tied the match at 21. The two teams drew even again at 22, but Cocke County surged forward and took the set 25-23 to even up the match.

For Evans while never wanting to drop a set, she saw the second set as a teaching moment for her team.

“Life is full of lessons,” Evans said. “In the game of volleyball, things can change rapidly and we have to be ready for that and work through it.”

Needing a response, the Lady Trojans got it in the third set as they never trailed on their way to a 25-19 win. The highlights came in the middle of the set as Cabe had back-to-back aces, while Messer had two blocks.

West appeared ready to finish the match off at the beginning of the fourth set. However, Cocke County took a lead at 9-8 and kept it until the Lady Trojans tied the match at 21.

From there, the two teams traded points until a kill by Cabe gave West a 27-26 advantage. On match point, the Lady Trojans fended off the Lady Red and took the match.

“When you do get down, that’s what you want to see,” Evans said. “We just stayed composed in that fourth set and got back to the basics and worked our way out of it.”

Morristown West will be back in action on Tuesday as they travel to take on Jefferson County. JV will start at 5 p.m. with varsity to follow.