Volleyball: EJCHS moves to 3-9

The Eagles (3-9, 0-2) had one starter unavailable for the night and two others who left during the match due to injuries.

“So we had to do some major shuffling of the lineup,” coach Tim Thomas said. “But the girls responded well and kept their heads about them. Urlissa Sheffield came off the bench and served extremely well, and Bria Youngs did a good job filling in at middle hitter.”

East Jackson lost its first match of the night to host Cedar Shoals (25-17, 25-20).

“This was the fourth time this season that we’ve let one slip away,” Thomas said. “We’ve got to improve on the mental part of our game or we’re going to keep losing matches that we should win.”

East Jackson also split a pair of matches five days earlier, beating Athens Christian (25-20, 25-16) but losing to Rabun County (25-22, 25-16).

Thomas said his team simply could not gain any momentum in the loss to Rabun County but improved against Athens Christian.
“But things still didn’t click like they should,” Thomas said. “If it were racing instead of volleyball, I’d say we had a cylinder skipping all night.”

East Jackson’s Thursday stat leaders were Rebekah Poponi (five kills, three assists, four aces), Madison Mealor (seven kills, two aces, two blocks), Haley Simmons (four kills, six assists, three aces, one block), Jill Edmondson (seven assists, 21 digs).

JUNIOR VARSITY WINS: The junior varsity picked its first win of the season, beating against Salem in three sets. East Jackson reeled off 15 consecutive points with Morgan Crawford serving, while Angela Hulsey served up the winning point with an ace.