By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

CHELSEA – The Chelsea volleyball is off to its typical strong start under head coach Jessica Pickett, and it continued on Tuesday, Sept. 11, when the Hornets hosted a tri-match featuring Alexandria and Tuscaloosa County.

In expected dominant fashion, the Hornets were able to win both matches in straight sets to sweep the tri-match with a combined score of 4-0 between the two games played.

In the first match against Alexandria, Chelsea looked polished and played as well as it has all season.

The first set saw the Hornets jump out to a strong lead early on before eventually pulling away down the stretch for an easy 25-16 victory to kick off the night.

If possible, Chelsea looked even stronger in the second set to continue its impressive start to the night with a 13-point victory taking down Alexandria 25-12 to pull off the 2-0 sweep in the first of the two matches.

Up 1-0 on the night, the Hornets had plenty of momentum moving into the second match against 7A Tuscaloosa County.

While the Wildcats were much more of a challenge for Chelsea than Alexandria, the Hornets were coming off of too much momentum to drop the first set.

In a set that saw Tuscaloosa County stay within striking distance throughout, Chelsea eventually went on a late run to pick up a 25-19 victory in the opening set.

The second set, however, saw a much more difficult Tuscaloosa County team not ready to lose the match.

It was a tightly-contested battle from start to finish that saw the Wildcats hanging tough throughout the set.

Eventually the two teams ended up in a 25-25 tie with one team battling to stay alive and the other trying to complete the sweep.

Following that, each team added a point to make it 26-26, before Chelsea picked up the next point to set up match point at 27-26.

The Hornets didn’t waste the opportunity this time and closed out the match with a clutch final point to pull off a 2-0 sweep after a thrilling final-set win against the Wildcats.

Chelsea has now gone 8-2 in the last week alone thanks to wins against Clay-Chalkville, Betsy Lane, Walker Valley, Bob Jones, Greeneville, Stewarts Creek, Tuscaloosa County and Alexandria, all of whom are solid teams.

The only losses came to Blackman High School in Tennessee and Roswell High School from Georgia.