By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

OXFORD – An unbelievable season continued for the Chelsea Hornets on Tuesday, Oct. 9, with a road tri-match at Oxford High School with victories against Jacksonville High School and the host Oxford Yellow Jackets.

In a region featuring two other top 10 teams in Helena and Pelham, the Hornets are sitting at 29-4 overall according to Max Preps and have beaten and lost toe both the Panthers and Huskies twice, showing how difficult a path to the postseason is going to be when the area tournament arrives in less than two weeks.

For Chelsea, however, the sweep of the tri-match was part of a stretch where the Hornets have lost just once in the last 17 matchups.

In the first match against Jacksonville, Chelsea started out a little slow. The Hornets found themselves in a back-and-forth battle for a while that saw Jacksonville close in on Chelsea’s lead late before the Hornets pulled away for a slim win in the set by a final of 25-22.

Expecting to win the match, like they do every match, the Hornets used that as a wakeup call that they could have easily dropped the opening set. That served as fuel for Chelsea in the second set, as the Hornets came out with a purpose and left no doubt in a 25-8 thumping in the second set to close out the first match of the night with a 2-0 sweep.

That led to a matchup with the host team Oxford Yellow Jackets, who are a much more competitive of a matchup for the Hornets.

In the first set, however, Chelsea was still able to pull away late for a 25-19 win and a 1-0 lead in the match.

It was a closely contested set, and the Yellow Jackets showed they could compete with the Hornets, which became even more apparent in the second set.

With Chelsea looking to pull off the 4-0 night, Oxford was battling to stay alive and showed it wasn’t going down without a fight.

The two teams went blow-for-blow in the second set eventually ending up in a 24-24 tie.

Needing to win by two, and neither team having sustained much momentum throughout the set, the next point became key.

Chelsea was able to grab the point for a 25-24 lead, and on match point didn’t allow Oxford a second chance to tie the set and potentially win it, as the Hornets closed out a 26-24 set win to finish the night with a perfect 4-0 set record.

With the area tournament on the horizon, Chelsea continues to build confidence and is still preparing for the moment it has been waiting for since last season’s area tourney.