McCarley, Eagles rack up kills in sweep of Lions
Sep. 5—BELDEN — Eric Laskowski wanted his players to swing away, and they did that quite effectively Tuesday night.
Tupelo Christian recorded 41 kills and swept Hamilton 3-0 (25-18, 25-14, 25-21) in a non-region match. It was the Eagles' second win against the Lions in the past week.
"We had one major strategy, and that was to swing away," said Laskowski, Tupelo Christian's first-year coach. "We wanted to swing it, swing it, swing it, and that's exactly what they did."
TCPS (8-1) kept Hamilton (4-6) on the defensive all match. Junior Lilly McCarley set the tone in the first set, and then she really found a groove in Set 2.
Hamilton had closed within 13-12 when McCarley sparked a 12-2 run to close the match. She notched three kills and back-to-back aces during the surge, and plenty of other Eagles got in on the action at the net.
In fact, the final four kills of the set came from three different players.
"You have to swing at everything and never back down from a ball," said McCarley, who finished with 12 kills and four service aces.
Sophomore Addison Eaves finished with eight kills, junior Lily Rose Morgan had seven, and senior Lindsey Jo Speed had six.
Hamilton's entire team had only six kills.
"We hit a lot of free balls back to them, and they attacked the ball a lot more," Lions coach Bryan Loague said. "It's hard when you're playing defense against a team that good all night long."
Hamilton gave TCPS a fight in the third set, tying it at 19-19. McCarley then bookended a 6-2 run with a pair of kills to end the match.
Senior Susana Worsham consistently sent good passes to the TCPS front row. She finished with 31 assists, plus she had three kills and an ace.
"She's coming off a COVID week last week; we just got her back," Laskowski said. "She came back tonight like she hadn't missed a beat."
