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Morristown East moved into a tie for first place in the District 2-3A volleyball race by dealing cross-town rival West its first league loss at Isenburg-Siler Gym.

The Lady Hurricanes racked up a 3-1 victory to improve to 13-4 for the season in snapping the Lady Trojans seven-game winning streak. Both teams are now 4-1 in district action.

East won the opening set, 25-22, before West bounced back with a 25-20 win to even the match. The Lady ‘Canes squeezed out a 25-23 decision in set four and closed out the match with a 25-22 victory.

The Lady Trojans are now 8-2 for the season.

Reagan Forester knocked down 15 kills to lead the Lady Hurricanes. Her sister, Riley, contributed nine while Hannah Hall had six and Hailey Hall five.

Bella Forte collected 11 kills and three digs for West while Aubrie Messer had eight kills, Emmah Long nine and Haley Cabe six. Messer also had three solo blocks, two assisted and an ace. Emma Miller had 20 assists and 10 digs, while Kenzie Collins had 28 digs and seven assists. Sydney Price had 13 digs and 10 assists.

Hannah Hall served five aces for the winners with Harmony Sullivan adding three and Hailey Hall two. Hailey Hall had two of East’s five blocked shots. Messer blocked four shots for the Lady Trojans.

East coach Courtney Dotson commented, “This was a really big win for us and I thought everybody played well and did their part.

“It was a win we had to have to stay in the district race after they beat us earlier in the season.”

Dotson went on to say, “I thought our energy was unbeatable tonight. I was really proud of the way people stepped up and did their part.”

East had 19 service errors but also served 14 aces. Dotson explained, “It was a little rough at times but one thing we did talk about going into the game was serving tough. If we were missing, we wanted it to be because were being aggressive. I thought we did that.”

West played without one of its best hitters in Brie Blevins who missed the game due to an injury. Coach Lacy Price Evans said, “We’re still working with the injury and playing with a new lineup.

“Overall, I’m proud of these girls because they worked very hard,” she added. “We just had some moments when we were making mistakes and it hurt us.”

The two teams stayed close all night long and appear to be evenly matched after splitting their regular-season matches.

In the opening set, the Lady Trojans held a couple of early one-point leads before East scored four straight points behind a kill by Riley Forester and a pair of aces by Sullivan that put the Lady Hurricanes in front for good.

East stretched its lead to 23-16 on a block by Sullivan, but the Lady Trojans refused to fold and closed within 23-21 on a kill by Messer.

Riley Forester then had a kill and Hailey Hall scored on a dink to end the set.

West fell behind by 7-2 in the second set when both Halls had kills and Hannah Hall served two aces. But the Lady Trojans got within a point on an ace by Sydney Price and finally caught up at 9-9 on Delaney Weddington’s kill.

A 6-1 capped by a kill from Claire Bolten gave the Lady Trojans an 18-16 lead before ties at 18-18 and 19-19. West took a two-point lead before Hannah Hall’s kill made it 21-20.

West then scored the final four points with two coming on kills by Long and Cabe and Messer’s block ending the set.

The Lady ‘Canes scored the first two points of the third set to get the lead at 6-4 and was still on top by two at 10-8. East regained the lead before the Lady Trojans scored three straight to go in front by 13-11.

But East reeled off an 8-2 run featuring three kills by Reagan Forester and one apiece by the Hall sisters to go ahead for good.

The Lady Hurricanes led 22-17 before West got within one on back-to-back kills by Messer and then tied the match at 23 on kills by Messer and Forte. Hailey Hall’s kill put East back ahead and a ball hit outside the pole ended the set.

West led 4-2 in the last set but the Lady ‘Canes racked up a 6-2 spurt to grab the upped hand.

After the Lady Trojans chopped it down to 8-7 they served out of bounds, Reagan Forester nailed a kill and Tori Johnson served an ace to put East in front 14-9.

Two straight hitting errors cut the lead to three but East reeled off five straight as Riley Forester had two kills and Lilabeth Jordan served two aces.

The Lady Trojans staged another comeback and got within 21-19 on a kill by Long. But a serve sailed long and Hailey Hall and Reagan Forester had kills to get East to match point.

Forte, Weddington and Cabe all had kills to get West in striking distance but Reagan Forester knocked down a final kill to end the match.