By WAYNE PHILLIPS

Sports Editor

South Greene captured the District 1-A/AA volleyball championship Thursday night at Chuckey-Doak, polishing off Sullivan North 3-1 in the finals and earning a berth in Monday's Region 1 tournament to be played at Pigeon Forge High School.

The Lady Rebels had to beat county rival West Greene in the semifinals to earn a berth in the finals. After losing the first game to their fierce rivals, the Rebs stormed back to win three straight games.

Sullivan North won a tight 3-2 decision over Elizabethton in their semifinal.

South Greene will take on Union County on Monday at 5:45 p.m. in the Region 1 event, while Sullivan North will take on host Pigeon Forge in the 4:30 p.m. game. The two winners will meet later in the evening for the championship, and both finalists will earn a berth in the sectionals, which will be played on Thursday with the regional champion hosting and the runnerup going on the road to the Region 2 champ.

"I thought we were very flat against West Greene early, but we stepped it up the second game and played much better," Coach Amy Hawk said. "Then we played really well against North. Our hitting wasn't that great, but serving and passing won it for us. I was really proud of the way the girls responded against West Greene because they had us down and we were able to rally back."

With tournament co-MVPs Rechelle Dye, who provided the sets, and Brittany Kinser, who came up with many of the kills, the Rebels beat Sullivan North in the first two games by scores of 25-22 and 25-18. They lost the third game 18-25, but then came back to clinch the title with a 25-20 decision in game No. 4.

Shelby Hicks, Brandi Crum and Megan Casteel were also named to the all-tournament team for the Rebels, who also claimed the regular season title in District 1.

Against Sullivan North, the lead see-sawed in game No. 1 while the Rebels got six straight points off the serving of Crum to jump into a 14-11 lead and they never trailed again. North closed to 23-22 on a kill by Chelsea Doran, but the Rebs closed them out with a point off a block by Kinser and a serve by Casteel that was returned into the net.

The second game saw North jump into an early 6-1 lead and forced Coach Hawk to call time out. Her team responded, reeling off six unanswered points to take a 7-6 lead. The game stayed close, with the Rebs up 20-18 before closing out the win with five straight points off the service of Brooke Kinser. Crum had a kill and a scoring dink in that run while Hicks also had a spike.

The third game also saw North open up a big early lead at 6-0, and they went on to up the lead to 13-4. This time the Rebs couldn't catch up, but they almost did, scoring eight straight points at one juncture to close the gap to 19-18. But the Raiders closed them out behind the service of Emily Dean, 25-18.

South Greene played much better in the fourth game, opening up a 6-1 early lead, then watching the Raiders battle back to tie the count and keep in close from the mid-point on. The Rebs got an ace from Brooke Kinser and a couple of big hits by Hicks to open up a 24-19 lead and go on to the 25-20 verdict to win the game and the match.

Brandi Crum had 11 kills and 18 service points to lead the Rebs, while Kinser had 12 kills and Brittany Ricker contributed eight kills.

In the semifinal match, the old rival Rebs and Buffs, who have had a long history of playing each other close, played nip-and-tuck through the first game. The Rebels led 14-9 before West Greene got on a good roll and tied things up at 16. With Emily Early serving, West Greene got the lead they wouldn't relinquish at 21-17. Chelsey Carter closed out the game with a 25-18 WG victory with a block at the net followed by a kill.

The second game was also very tight. West Greene's final lead was at 17-16. The Rebels seemed to change gears late in the game and began playing much better, going up 23-19 before the Buffs closed to 23-22. Dye got a point off a dink to make it 24-22, then South Greene won it at 25-22 when the Buffs got a player in the net.

South Greene trailed 13-9 in the third game when they got on a roll behind the serving of Megan Casteel, who had 10 service aces in the match and got four in a row at one point as the Rebs rallied to take a 20-13 lead. West Greene never got closer than 20-14 and the Rebs won 25-17.

That setback seemed to take the fire out of the Buffs and the Rebels completely controlled the fourth game, winning convincingly at 25-9.

Casteel had 22 service points with 10 aces and 24 digs to lead the Rebels.

All-Tourney

Members of the all-tournament team: Co-MVPs Brittany Kinser and Rechelle Dye, Megan Casteel, Brandi Crum and Shelby Hicks of South Greene; Emily Dean, Brooke Adams, Chasity Crawford and Olivia Breeding of Sullivan North; Mariah Pietrowski and Taylor Bellessa of Elizabethton; Alicia Kinser and Emily Early of West Greene; Tiffany Crum of Chuckey-Doak and Amy Vallie of North Greene.

All-Season

Members of the 2008 all-season team: Megan Casteel, Brittany Kinser, Brandi Crum and Rechelle Dye of South Greene; Mariah Pietrowski, Taylor Bellessa and Jessica Trivette of Elizabethton; Emily Dean, Chasity Crawford and Brooke Adams of Sullivan North; Colleen Cavanagh and Emily Early of West Greene; Kendra Tarlton and Sam Durham of Chuckey-Doak; Amy Vallie of North Greene; Karina McAvoy of Unicoi County; and April Wilson of Johnson County.

Player of the Year was Brittany Kinser of South Greene. Defensive player of the year was Chasity Crawford of Sullivan North. Setter of the year was Rechelle Dye of South Greene, and hitter of the year was Mariah Pietrowski of Elizabethton.

Honorable mention selections from the Greene County schools were Megan Sizemore of South Greene, Chelsey Carter of West Greene, Tiffany Crum of Chuckey-Doak and Sam Weems of North Greene.