Undefeated MHS Volleyball Wins 4th Straight SMC Championship
Sports, Team FYN Sports, TeamFYNSports January 9, 2021
Photos from: MHS Athletics Facebook page
Murphy High School’s volleyball team has been on a tear this season. So much so, that they’ve only lost one set the entire season. Not one match, one single set!
The Bulldogs found themselves in their final match of the season against Robbinsville this past week.
They won the first set 25-7, second set 25-12, and the final set 25-20 to sweep the Black Knights and secure their fourth straight SMC Conference title.
That means that Seniors like Grace Nelson, Sarah Pullium and Olivia Cook will graduate without knowing what its like to NOT win a conference title, which is pretty special.
Head Coach Nikol Watson has done an outstanding job with these ladies and has not let coaching in a pandemic detour her from coaching a winning team.
Regular Season stats are as follows:
Attacking
| # | Name | SP | K | K/S | Pct | ATT | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | 40 | 460 | 11.5 | 53.3 | 863 | 133 | |
| 5 | O. Cook | 8 | 0 | 0.0 | .0 | 1 | 0 |
| 10 | S. Pullium | 40 | 107 | 2.7 | 42.8 | 250 | 56 |
| 12 | T. Rogers | 40 | 87 | 2.2 | 53.0 | 164 | 31 |
| 15 | A. Stroupe | 37 | 0 | 0.0 | .0 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 | C. Dockery | 28 | 0 | 0.0 | .0 | 5 | 1 |
| 23 | O. Payne | 40 | 93 | 2.3 | 53.1 | 175 | 17 |
| 24 | A. Phillips | 40 | 9 | 0.2 | 33.3 | 27 | 9 |
| 30 | G. Nelson | 40 | 140 | 3.5 | 65.1 | 215 | 18 |
| 35 | A. Martin | 40 | 24 | 0.6 | 92.3 | 26 | 1 |
Blocking
| # | Name | SP | BS | BA | TB | B/S | B/M |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | 40 | 48 | 43 | 70 | 1.7 | 5.3 | |
| 10 | S. Pullium | 40 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| 12 | T. Rogers | 40 | 15 | 14 | 29 | 0.7 | 2.2 |
| 21 | C. Dockery | 28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| 23 | O. Payne | 40 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0.1 | 0.3 |
| 24 | A. Phillips | 40 | 0 | 12 | 12 | 0.3 | 0.9 |
| 30 | G. Nelson | 40 | 22 | 7 | 29 | 0.7 | 2.2 |
| 35 | A. Martin | 40 | 9 | 5 | 14 | 0.4 | 1. |
Digging
| # | Name | SP | D | DE | D/S | Digs/M |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | 40 | 469 | 70 | 11.7 | 36.1 | |
| 5 | O. Cook | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0.3 | 0.5 |
| 10 | S. Pullium | 40 | 104 | 15 | 2.6 | 8.0 |
| 12 | T. Rogers | 40 | 66 | 8 | 1.7 | 5.1 |
| 15 | A. Stroupe | 37 | 15 | 2 | 0.4 | 1.3 |
| 21 | C. Dockery | 28 | 54 | 4 | 1.9 | 6.0 |
| 23 | O. Payne | 40 | 78 | 14 | 2.0 | 6.0 |
| 24 | A. Phillips | 40 | 25 | 8 | 0.6 | 1.9 |
| 30 | G. Nelson | 40 | 77 | 10 | 1.9 | 5.9 |
| 33 | J. Schwalm | 4 | 10 | 3 | 2.5 | 3.3 |
| 35 | A. Martin | 40 | 38 | 6 | 1.0 | 2.9 |
Murphy will host Lincoln Charter in the first round of the NCHSAA playoffs on Tuesday of this coming week.
The Playoff seeding was different this year because of the pandemic. Only 32 teams made the playoffs instead of 64, and the seeding was randomly chosen. It looks like Murphy drew the number 7 seed.
The playoff schedule is as follows:
- Jan. 12: First round
- Jan. 14: Second round
- Jan. 16: Third round
- Jan. 19: Regional championships
- Jan. 23: State championships
SMC Volleyball update- Murphy Lady Bulldogs still undefeated
Team FYN Sports, TeamFYNSports December 23, 2020
Two teams have stood atop of the Smoky Mountain Conference volleyball standings this year: The Murphy Bulldogs and the Rosman Tigers.
Those two teams saw their first action against each other yesterday. Murphy headed into the match 9-0 while Rosman was 5-0.
Murphy won the first two sets before dropping their first set of the season 25-22. They handily won the fourth set and took home the win, all but giving them a first place bid into the NCHSAA 1A state volleyball tournament.
| 12/22 @ 2p | S1 | S2 | S3 | S4 | Wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Murphy | 25 | 25 | 22 | 25 | 3 |
| Rosman | 21 | 22 | 25 | 14 | 1 |
Murphy is led by Seniors Grace Nelson and Sarah Pullium, along with Junior Torin Rogers and Sophomore Olivia Payne.
| # | Athlete Name | Sets Played | Kills | Blocks | Digs | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season Totals | 24 | 265 | 44 | 228 | ||||
| From: Maxpreps | ||||||||
| 30 | G. Nelson (Sr) | 24 | 80 | 16 | 33 | |||
| 12 | T. Rogers (Jr) | 24 | 61 | 18 | 27 | |||
| 23 | O. Payne (So) | 24 | 55 | 3 | 46 | |||
| 10 | S. Pullium (Sr) | 24 | 53 | 0 | 60 |
The chart below shows the Smoky Mountain Conference standings as of now.
| School Name | SMC
*W-L |
SMC
*Pct. |
SMC
*Sets W |
SMC
*Sets L |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Murphy | 8-0 | 1.000 | 24 | 1 | |||||
| Rosman | 5-1 | 0.833 | 16 | 4 | |||||
| Robbinsville | 5-2 | 0.714 | 16 | 8 | |||||
| Swain County | 4-4 | 0.500 | 13 | 15 | |||||
| Hayesville | 3-5 | 0.375 | 10 | 15 | |||||
| Andrews | 2-6 | 0.250 | 8 | 19 | |||||
| Cherokee | 0-9 | 0.000 | 2 | 27 |
Murphy and Rosman will play again in the regular season this year on new years eve. Rosman and Robbinsville play on the 29th and if Robbinsville can come away with a win in that match then they will secure their spot at number 2 in the SMC.