Photo: Hannah Smith (5), left, plays for Snead State, while Kaylee Maddox (5), right, plays for Wallace State.
HANCEVILLE – They will be friends forever. They are no longer teammates.
After making an impact for the volleyball program at Good Hope High School, Kaylee Maddox and Hannah Smith have taken the next step in their playing careers.
Both are involved in volleyball through the Alabama Community College Conference. Maddox is a freshman outside hitter for conference champion Wallace State Community College, with Smith a freshman setter at Snead State Community College.
Smith returned to Cullman County Wednesday night with her new squad. It was great for Smith to see former Good Hope Coach Rosemary Brown, along with family members and friends.
But the evening was dominated by Maddox and her Wallace State teammates. Family members were in attendance to share this night with her.
Wallace swept Snead 25-9, 25-12 and 25-17 to continue its dominance of the conference. The six-time champions under coach Randy Daniel are 25-1, 11-0 in the ACCC and on a 16-game winning streak.
The Lady Lions have won 39 consecutive matches in the conference and are setting their sights on another title when the Region 22 tournament comes to the Coliseum on Halloween weekend.
Both started for their respective teams with Smith serving to start the best of five conference match.
Wallace received and seconds later, Maddox had the first point of the game with a kill from the left side of the front row.
The Lady Lions controlled the Lady Parsons from the start. Maddox's third kill of the set raised the score to 12-3.
Snead never recovered and was down 1-0.
Both got to encounter each other near the net in the second set as Smith worked her way through the rotation. Smith is a valuable asset to the Lady Parsons in setting up her teammates from the back line to the front row for them to try and control play at the net.
Down 2-0 in the match, Snead started to get comfortable and challenged the Lady Lions respectively in game three. A set by Smith led to a score and a 4-2 Snead lead.
Then it was time for Maddox to show her skills as an outside hitter. On the left side of the front line, Maddox drilled the ball over the net to tie the game at 5-5.
A service ace by the 2015 Cullman County Tournament MVP pushed Wallace in front at 7-6.
Smith and Snead answered the challenge and went up by the score of 12-8 when the Lady Lions regained momentum and would not be denied sweeping the visitors from Boaz.
Maddox scored a point for her team with a net block and it was 16-13. Moments later, Smith tried to get her team in a comeback when she scored three in a row from the service line and Snead was behind 23-17.
A volley from Maddox led to a point and a 24-17 lead with the Lady Lions getting the match winner on the next play. The contest took less than an hour to be played.
Both feel different about seeing the other in a different uniform than the red and white of the Good Hope Raiders. Both described it as weird in a very special way.
"We had six wonderful years together playing middle school and high school volleyball," Maddox said after the match.
"I was excited about coming back here and playing Kaylee and Wallace," Smith stated. "Our team had some nervous moments early and we tried to settle down. We felt intimidated by Wallace for them being a very good team."
Both ladies described the game very different from high school due to the speed and agility of the athletes. "I like the style of play a whole lot," Maddox said. "There are a lot more fundamentals in the college game than high school."
Maddox has been an impact for the Lady Lions in her freshmen season with a veteran team and talented newcomers. Maddox has produced 50 kills in 19 matches, which has her 35th ranked in the conference.
Going into the Snead match, Maddox had 48 digs, an average of 1.07 per set.
Smith was ranked third in the conference in assists with 311, providing an average of 7.23 per game.
About this time a year ago, Maddox and Smith were a part of the Lady Raiders winning the school's 16th Cullman County volleyball championship. They would go on to set a single season record of 52 wins, sending Brown out on retirement with well over 1,000 victories at Good Hope, the winningest coach in volleyball history in the county.
Now the two are making a valuable contribution to the lineup on the collegiate side with Maddox and Wallace in first place while Smith and Snead are tied for fourth in the conference at 4-5 with Southern Union, a game behind Gadsden State's 5-4 record after Wednesday's assignment at the Coliseum.
Smith said she and her team are going to continue to work hard and be ready when they return to Wallace for the conference tournament.
Maddox will continue to press on working on different phases of her game, as she has been a part of 78 wins in the last year and a half between high school and college and over a month left on her first season as a collegiate athlete.
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