CENTRE – The Cherokee County Lady Warriors had a little extra support for their Class 4A, Area 11 match with No. 9 Alexandria on Tuesday.

The Warrior band was in the stands, making the atmosphere a little more intimidating for the Lady Cubs, but in the end, Alexandria was able to escape with a 25-18, 26-24, 25-21 victory.

“When you’re a good team and used to winning, it’s easy not to get rattled,” Cherokee County coach Leah Monteith Goss said. “I think we do rattle teams some, but we just have hard time finishing them off. That comes with maturity, and we’re working on that.”

The Lady Warriors (13-21, 1-4 Area 11) got consistency in the kill department from hitters Kayle Moon, Madison Millsaps and Allison Horne. Moon led the Lady Warriors with eight kills. Millsaps added six and Horne had five.

“I felt like our hitting was pretty consistent tonight,” Monteith Goss said. “What’s killing us is the little things – ball control, missing serves. It’s the little things that dig a hole and make it very hard to come out of against a really good team. I thought they played well and fought hard, but we’ve just got to turn that corner.”

Heather Hubbard added 22 assists for the Lady Warriors. Jessen Burk came away with 11 digs. Claire Chensut finished with seven digs.

In game one, Alexandria (21-9, 4-2) built a 22-9 advantage. Cherokee County bounced back to make it a six-point deficit at 24-18, but the rally was too late.

The second game saw the Lady Warriors jump out to a 13-8 advantage, forcing Alexandria coach Jordan Costner to call a time out to get her team settled. Whatever Costner said must have worked, because the Lady Cubs responded to tie the game at 19 and finished it off by outlasting the Lady Warriors 7-5 down the stretch.

Alexandria jumped out to 14-9 lead in game three before the Lady Warriors rallied again to tie the game at 14. The two teams battled back and forth down the stretch, but the Lady Cubs were able to pull out the game and win the match.

“We didn’t play the best we’ve played, but we did win in three (games) and that’s all that matters,” said Alexandria coach Jordan Costner, whose team finished up area play and secured the second seed to Jacksonville in the upcoming Area 11 tournament. “We’re real good at taking points here and there, but not playing hard all the time. That’s something we’re trying to get out of, especially before the area tournament. I think once we get to where we play hard all the time, we’ll win a lot more games.”

Amanda Young led the Lady Cubs with 15 kills and 11 digs. Olivia Walker added 10 kills and nine digs. Madison Shanks had 14 digs, and Kaylee Golden finished with 26 assists.