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The postseason continues for Coffee County volleyball.

Kicking off the District 9-AAA tournament at home against No. 6 seed Franklin County Tuesday evening, the No. 3 seed Lady Raiders overcame a slower start to win 3-1 and advance to the district semifinals.

This was also the first time this year that Coffee County had surrendered a set to the Rebelettes, after previously defeating them 3-0 in both of their regular-season matchups.

“The first one is on me. I swapped the lineup last minute so I could start all my seniors in their last home game. We’re talking about swapped within the last few seconds, so that threw them off and so they were not ready for that,” Coffee County coach Jon Spears said. “The second lineup, we went back to what we beat Lawrence County with the other night.”

Franklin County wasted no time jumping out to an early lead in the first set, taking eight of the first 10 points to build an 8-2 lead. The Rebelettes continued to push ahead from there, ultimately winning 25-13 to take a 1-0 lead.

A tight start to the second set saw the Lady Raiders holding a narrow lead before Franklin County tied it at 8-8. Coffee County went on to take the next point to get back in front, but the Rebelettes continued to linger.

Up 13-11, the Lady Raiders strung together four straight points to separate themselves. Coffee County did not let Franklin County cut the lead to any closer than four points through the set’s remainder, winning 25-18 to tie the match at 1-1.

Looking to take the lead with a win in the third set, the Lady Raiders got things started with four unanswered points on the way to distancing themselves from the Rebelettes. Coffee County continued to maintain space and never trailed on the way to taking the set 25-17 to go up 2-1 overall.

Tied at 3-3 early in the fourth set, the Lady Raiders grabbed the next three points to take the lead. Franklin County did not let Coffee County get too far out in front, taking three out of the next four points to make it a 7-6 set. The Lady Raiders answered with seven straight points to separate themselves before ultimately winning 25-11 to seal the match.

 “Franklin County always gives us a hard time, but our energy on the court from the first set to the next three were completely different,” Coffee County’s Hayleigh Harris said. “As a team, we do better with higher energy. We walked out there, we were all tired, we did not play the game of volleyball that we normally play. That energy got high and we started playing well once we got back out there.”

Harris led the team in kills with 11. Danni Hillis followed with nine. Carrington Saner added seven kills. Allysa Goon came away with five to finish just ahead of Morgen Spears with four. Up next was Paisley Dyer with three kills. Cailey Sturgill and Isabelle Saner both notched two each. Cara Newlin had one kill.

Krislyn Martin was the team’s ace leader with two on the match. Hillis and Harris each had one.

Spears took the top spot in blocks with three. Sturgill and Carrington Saner both had one each.

Taylor Brinkley led the team in assists with 19. Jenslee Nogodula recorded nine. Andon Selvog finished with six assists, just ahead of Isabelle Saner with five. Harris, Spears and Carrington Saner all had one each.

After once again breaking her own single game school digs record with 29 during Coffee County’s 3-2 win over Lawrence County last Thursday, Nogodula continued to lead the team in this category with 14 digs this time around. Brinkley was credited with 11. Selvog added six digs. Up next were Hillis and Harris with five each. Goon, Spears and Carrington Saner each followed with three digs. Emma Haley had one.

The Lady Raiders will continue district tournament play with a semifinal match against Columbia at Tullahoma High School Thursday evening. The two teams split their regular-season series, with Coffee County taking the first one 3-2 at home on Aug. 28 and the Lady Lions taking the rematch 3-0 at Columbia on Sept. 23.

Match time for the semifinal is set for 5:30 p.m. The winner will advance to the district tournament championship which will be contested the same evening following the semifinal round.