JACKSONVILLE – The Cherokee County Lady Warriors and the Alexandria Lady Cubs are no strangers to playing close volleyball matches.

Just last week Cherokee County defeated Alexandria in five games, in which all the games went down to the wire. The Lady Warriors were able to come away with the win in that match, but they weren’t as fortunate on Tuesday in the Class 4A, Area 12 tournament.

Despite battling back from a two-game deficit to force a fifth game, Cherokee County’s season came to a close with a loss to the Lady Cubs in the opening round of the tournament. The scores were 14-25, 23-25, 25-19, 25-16 and 12-15.

Alexandria and Jacksonville advance to Saturday’s regional tournament in Jacksonville. Jacksonville (44-3) defeated Alexandria (27-14) in three games 25-11, 25-8 and 25-11 to earn the Area 12 title.

Jacksonville opened the tournament by defeating Hokes Bluff 25-10, 25-6 and 25-11.

Cherokee County’s season ends at 26-17.

“It’s always been a close match (against Alexandria),” Lady Warrior coach Amy Barnes said. “It’s hard to beat someone three times in a season, especially a good team. It just wasn’t our night.”

Out of the five games played between the Lady Warriors and Lady Cubs Tuesday night, there were 11 ties throughout. Three of those ties came in the deciding game.

“We could’ve won, but because we deserved to win doesn’t mean the other team is going to lie down and give it to us,” Barnes said. “I’m not disappointed at all in the way we played. I thought we played hard, and I thought we played well. We went down swinging hard, and we didn’t roll over and die. I can live with a loss knowing we went down playing hard.”

Sophomore outside hitter Kaitlyn Griffith led the Lady Warriors wit 16 kills and two blocks. Junior outside hitter Haley Highfield added 15 kills. Sophomore setter Cayla Machleit had 44 assists and junior libero Laura Rochester came away with 11 digs.

The Lady Warriors dug themselves an early hole in game one, as Alexandria jumped out to a 4-0 advantage and led by as many as 11 points. Cherokee County closed the gap to six points on a couple of occasions, but could never get any closer.

Game two saw the Lady Warriors jump out to a 12-6 lead before Alexandria battled back to tie the game at 23, forcing Barnes to call a timeout.

Alexandria scored the next two points to take a two-game advantage.

The Lady Cubs trailed by as many as six points in game three at 11-5 before making a mini-rally to cut Cherokee County’s lead to 12-10. The Lady Warriors closed out the game with a 13-9 run to force a fourth game.

In the fourth game, the Lady Warriors jumped out to a 4-0 lead and held as much as a 10-point cushion on their way to the win. That forced the deciding fifth game, in which neither team had a lead larger than three points.

Tied at 12, the Lady Cubs scored the game’s final three points to earn the win and end Cherokee County’s hopes of a regional berth.

“Some people and coaches wouldn’t call that fun, but to me that’s fun,” Barnes said. “That’s volleyball. It’s a momentum sport. Those are games as a player I loved being in. I loved being in those situations. We had girls tonight who played well and really shined in situations like that, but Alexandria’s a good team. I feel like they were better than us tonight. I wish it was us moving on instead of them.”

Barnes is confident her team will rebound. The Lady Warriors are only losing one senior in outside hitter Rachel Lamb.

“I don’t expect any less work out of them next season,” Barnes said of her returning players. “It’s only going to get better, and they’re only going to work harder. It’s hard to have a loss like this and not have it drive you for a whole year. We’re going to be ready for next season, and hopefully we’ll go past area and on to regionals.”