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After claiming a pair of wins at the Juanita Boddie, the Chelsea Hornets opened up their home slate with another solid performance against Jasper. (For the Reporter/Dawn Harrison)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

CHELSEA – Playing in front of their home fans for the first time in the young season, the Chelsea Hornets capitalized on the home crowd to claim a win over the Jasper Vikings.

Chelsea beat Jasper 3-1 on Tuesday, Aug. 27 at Chelsea High School to improve to 3-4 on the year and get one step closer to a .500 record.

After a season-opening five-set loss to Shades Valley, the Hornets went to the Juanita Boddie tournament on Aug. 23 and 24 and came back with a pair of wins and a berth in the Silver Bracket.

Despite losing its first game of the tournament 2-0 to Class 7A Jasper, Chelsea bounced back with a pair of 2-0 sweeps over Fort Payne and Robertsdale, which meant even a 2-1 loss to Mississippi’s Ocean Springs to end pool play couldn’t leave them out of the Silver Bracket.

However, a 2-0 first round loss to Briarwood quickly ended that run and shifted the focus to their home opener against Jasper.

Chelsea stormed out of the gate and opened up a solid lead that the Vikings could not overcome. Eventually, the Hornets would go on to win the first set 25-14 to establish themselves as the early favorites.

However, that would be as easy as it got for Chelsea as Jasper made the hosts fight harder for the rest of the match.

The Vikings got within a couple points of taking the second set, but the Hornets stood tall in the end and took the 25-21 win to extend their lead in the match to 2-0.

Jasper forced an even tighter third set, and while Chelsea sat just a point away from a sweep, the Vikings were tied with them at 24. That led to multiple rounds of extra points before Jasper won the set 29-27 to extend the match.

The Hornets recovered from that setback and built out a more substantial lead in the fourth set before taking the 25-19 win to seal the 3-1 victory.

Next, Chelsea will head north to Sparkman on Thursday, Aug. 29 for a tri-match with the Senators and Bob Jones Patriots.

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