By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

ONEONTA – Over the weekend the Chelsea volleyball Lady Hornets traveled to Oneonta High School to take part in the Go Green Tournament. The Lady Hornets brought a 17-5 record into the tournament, and left with a 21-5 record, winning the tournament in four games and beating JB Pennington, Westbrook Christian, Sardis and Fort Payne en route to the tournament title.

“We are 21-5, but four of our five losses have come in the last set to 15,” Chelsea head volleyball coach Jessica Pickett said on Sept. 26. “We can get kind of comfortable and start relaxing if we go up a set, and haven’t finished well at times.

“We had a little adversity (in the Go Green Tournament), Fort Payne took us to three sets,” Pickett continued. “We finished that game, which was nice to see. As a whole we played well.”

Ashley Mock had 45 assists and 32 digs in the tournament; Lexie Riggins had 30 kills, 42 digs and eight blocks; Taylor Hackett had 32 assists, 29 digs and 17 kills and Jules Hamer had 20 kills and 11 aces to lead the Lady Hornets.

“If you look at our stats we don’t have one person that we go to,” Pickett added. “We spread it out and get contributions from a lot of places.”

In the Go Green Tournament, Chelsea beat JB Pennington, Westbrook Christian and Sardis in straight sets, 2-0, before beating Fort Payne 2-1 to take home the title.

Coming into this season, the expectations were high for this Chelsea group that Pickett has watched grow up.

“We have six seniors,” Pickett said. “These six seniors were freshman when I came to Chelsea. Our expectations have been high for this group, we did expect it was going to be a good season. They’re not satisfied, which is good to see as a coach, they want to keep improving.”

With the momentum now from the win in the Go Green Tournament, Chelsea now will turn its focus to the last two weeks of regular season play before heading into the area tournament. Chelsea, Helena and Pelham are the three teams in 6A Area 8, and all three are 1-1 in area play as of Sept. 26.