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The Tullahoma High School volleyball team took their first loss of the year against Columbia Central 3-0.

The match began with the Lady Lions serving. Tullahoma won the first point, but Columbia took control on the very next serve. With Control Maddie Davis helped the Lady Lions score five more points to make it 6-1 before a Lady ‘Cats timeout. The last two points of the run were on aces. Tullahoma won the first three points immediately after their timeout. Then Columbia went on another five point run, taking an 11-4 lead. The Lady Wildcats had another three point run, with one of Olivia Spencer’s aces. After the short run from Tullahoma, Columbia scored eight of the next 13 points. With the score at 19-12 in favor of the Lady Lions went on another run with Davis serving, going up 23-12.  The Lady Wildcats scored four of the next five points, before Columbia was able to grab the set-winning point. The final score of the first set was 25-16.

The second set started similarly for the Lady ‘Cats, they went down 10-2 before their first run of the set. They grabbed four straight points to cut the Lady Lions’ lead down to 10-6. Columbia responded with three more points to rebuild their lead, 13-6. Tullahoma came back with a run of five points, four of them aces from Spencer to tie the score at 15. The two teams began treading points back and forth, and remained tied at 21-21. The Lady Wildcats won the next point, but then gave up two consecutive points to the Lady Lions. With pressure mounting the Lady ‘Cats scored two more points, taking a 24-23 lead. Down to game point, Columbia answered with two points of their own to flip the set 25-24. Tullahoma extended the set by winning the point when Columbia was serving for the set. With the set at 27-26, the Lady Wildcats won two straight points giving themselves a chance to take the set away 28-27. After trading the next two points, Tullahoma was serving for the game up 29-28. The Lady Lions took the point and then earned the last two points in the set with Kyla Rohling serving. Columbia took the second set 31-29.

Tullahoma had their best start in the third set, they quickly went up 3-0. Then Columbia went on a run, scoring seven of the next nine points taking a 7-5 lead. The Lady ‘Cats won the next two points to tie the game at 7, then the Lady Lions went on a long run. They scored eight straight points, seven off of Rohling’s serves. Tullahoma fought back, getting four of the next six points to bring the score to 17-11. Columbia tried to put the Lady ‘Cats away after that, having another run, scoring six of the next eight points. Down 23-13 Tullahoma went on their own run, winning eight of the following nine point. With the momentum and serve control the Lady Wildcats looked to extend the third set, but could not string enough consecutive points together and lost the set 25-21.

Leader for Tullahoma in the match were Spencer with five aces, Emerie Saunders with 14 kills, Jada Spry with 15 assists and Spencer with 17 digs. Saunders, Spry and Lacee Barbeau all had three aces each. Audrey Todaro had nine assists and four digs. Saunders added 14 digs to her stat line and Spry had 10.