Scoring Points: Masks not stopping MHS volleyball

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 last week. 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.

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

I knew going into this season that the seniors on this team would play hard as long as they were given the chance to compete this year.

Seeing these girls play all season with their masks on has been a sight. It is definitely a shock seeing student-athletes wearing masks while they are out there playing and sweating. It has been a great thing though to see the season come this far and coaches and players coming together with games being cancelled and stuff. It gives me hope that the upcoming basketball and football seasons for North Carolina are not just a pipe dream.

It is also very encouraging to see a local team do as well as these Lady Bulldogs have done. They will be competing for the Smoky Mountain Conference Championship against Rosman on New Years Eve. Murphy beat Rosman earlier this year 3-1. That is the only set that the Bulldogs have lost this year.

The chart below shows the Smoky Mountain Conference standings as of last week.