GRAY DEYOSports Writer

The Lady Wildcats volleyball team have hit a rough spot in their 2025 schedule, but in those struggles underclassmen, Avanley Metcalf has shined. She recently broke the school record for most assists in a game.

Lincoln County

The Tullahoma Wildcats volleyball team, on Sept 11, played a tough Lincoln County team. The Lady Falcons have a current record of 15-6. The Lady Wildcats ended up losing this matchup, but improved off their last match against the Lady Falcons, where they lost back in August 3-0. This time around, they went all the way to a tiebreaker set, losing 3-2. The set scores were 19-25, 25-20, 20-25, 25-19, and 10-15.

One player who had a big game for the ‘Cats was junior Gabi Gardner. She helped Tullahoma run strings of points together, serving a team-high 27 times. She led the team in aces in the game with six total. She also had the second most kills on Tullahoma in the game, with seven.

Fayetteville

Tullahoma after a tough loss against Lincoln, followed it with another loss against Fayetteville. This marked the ‘Cats’ first two-game or more losing streak of the 2025 season. The set scores were as follows: 25-20, 23-25, 23-25, 25-20, and 14-16. A big separator in this game that ultimately held the ‘Cats back from getting the win was that they recorded 70 errors in the game. If they cleaned this up just a little bit, this game could have easily gone the other way.

In this game, Metcalf broke the school record for most assists in a game, recording 48 assists. The previous record she broke was set at 38 assists. She came one assist shy of tying this in a game against rival Coffee County earlier in the season, notching 37 assists in the five set bout.

Tullahoma, after losing to Fayetteville, followed that loss with another one against Lawrence County, losing 3-1.

The Lady Wildcats have shown in individual matchups this year that they can rally and come back in a game. They will have to use that same skill at a bigger scale at stringing a few solid performances and wins together. They have the talent to do this and the chemistry to do so as well. They will look to get back on track, where they take on three opponents from Sept 18 to 20–Columbia Central, Bledsoe County, and Centennial High School.