By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

CHELSEA – Building off of eight consecutive wins a week ago, including two straight area victories against Calera, a sweep, and Pelham, a five-set thriller, the Chelsea Hornets were back at it on Tuesday, Sept. 25, with another strong performance on their home floor in a tri-match against Homewood and Gardendale.

The Hornets weren’t just able to pick up two consecutive wins to sweep the matches, but did so against two difficult 6A opponents.

While Homewood provided the most difficult challenge of the two teams, the Hornets dominated for most of the night and it started in that match with the Patriots.

In the first set, you didn’t get the impression that Chelsea was going to have to work hardest to win the match as the Hornets jumped all over Homewood and pulled away for a dominant 25-9 win to start the night.

The next two sets, however, told a different story.

While the second set was tightly contested throughout, the Hornets never were able to put together the same streak and consistency they saw in the opening set.

It led to Homewood pulling off a 25-21 victory in the set thanks to several important late points that helped them pull away to tie the match 1-1.

That was just the beginning of the fireworks as the two teams were now set for a winner-take-all third set to determine the match.

In that final set, it was back-and-forth the entire way with Chelsea eventually getting a match point at 14-13. The Hornets knew they couldn’t squander that opportunity and immediately closed out the match with the final point to pull off the 2-1 victory with a 15-13 win in the final set.

Chelsea took that momentum and rode it into the second match against the Gardendale Rockets with a dominant showing, especially in the first set.

The Hornets were able to pick up a 25-10 victory in the opening set of the match thanks to a convincing lead throughout.

As well as the team was playing, Chelsea wasn’t going to let the opportunity of closing the match out slip away. While it was more tightly contested in the second set, the Hornets eventually pulled away for another easy win by a final score of 25-17 to end the night with a 2-0 record.