By Thomas Sellers Jr.
TRA Lady Rebel Mollie Word tries to get a spike over the Millington front line during last week’s game in Millington.
The annual Flag City Showdown between the Tipton-Rosemark Academy Lady Rebels and Millington Lady Trojans started off well. But as the game proceeded last Thursday in the William Osteen Gymnasium, the Lady Rebels started to establish control and prevail 25-17, 25-8 and 25-13. Just like in the game against their city rivals, the Lady Rebels have shown growth since the beginning of the season. “We’ve progressed a lot,” TRA senior Jordyn Thornell said. “In July we had team camp and now when I look back I am like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’ve come a long way.’ It’s just crazy because we’re really young. But we’ve just worked together.” Part of the work for Head Coach Wendy Porter’s Lady Rebels was getting Thornell and her fellow seniors Bethany Berger and Madison Cranford to be leaders on and off the court. The trio rotation in the lineup with a pair of freshmen and sophomores. “Since we knew that we were going to be very young,” Thornell noted, “we had to be very patient at the same time be very encouraging leaders for our team.” With Millington coming out hot in the first set, it took some of that patience to help TRA win the first set 25-17. In the second set the Lady Rebels used good back row defense and timely hitting to seize control. A hit by Berger made the score 18-6. And the senior standout continued her “Beefy” Berger play slapping down a kill to end the set at 25-8. With the Lady Trojans featuring players like Addison Coulter, Ashley Freeze and Ally Hall on the front line, Thornell said the Lady Rebels knew they had to execute with precision force at the net in order to win. “It’s kind of hard when you play a team like St. George’s or Harding,” she said. “They have those 6-foot girls. It’s definitely a disadvantage. But we make up for it a lot with our play. You do look at it and say, ‘Man, I wish I could be that tall.’ I’m a 5’7 middle. You usually don’t have those out there. But we all play hard.” TRA’s hard play continued in the third set taking an 8-3 lead. Millington rallied behind the serving of Coulter. Her three aces made the score 8-7 in favor of TRA. The Lady Rebels finally broke her serve and proceeded with a 7-0 run. The serving of TRA’s Haley Ramsey sparked the run as she served up a pair of aces. Millington got to within 18-13 in the final set but TRA went back on the attack with Thornell hitting a kill to make the score 22-13. The Lady Rebels closed out the game with the final 3 points.
“We have some big games coming up especially next week,” Thornell concluded. “We’ve just got to keep practicing and practicing. We have to write down what we’re doing wrong in these games and work on them.”
