BRISTOL -- A year can last forever or it can be done in a flash, depending on perspective.
But regardless of one's view, a lot has certainly changed over the last 12 months within the volleyball programs at both Tennessee High and West Ridge.
One thing is still the same, however -- these neighbors will always be natural-born rivals.
Adversaries since 2021, when West Ridge was hatched out of consolidation, the two schools kicked it up a notch when Tennessee High moved from Class AA to Class AAA in 2023, joining the Wolves in the Big East Conference. Now, these games are league games.
West Ridge swept Tennessee High last fall when the Wolves dominated locally, rolling to a second straight Region 1-AAA championship and a second straight trip to the state tournament. But this go 'round, it could be that the Vikings may have the upper hand.
Tennessee High broke free from a tough match Thursday night to convincingly beat West Ridge, nabbing a 25-22, 17-25, 25-9, 25-18 decision at Viking Hall.
It was good tonic after Tuesday's brutal league defeat at Daniel Boone, where the Vikings lost the first two sets (both by two points) before equalling the count, only to drop the fifth set 18-16.
"Whew," first-year THS coach Carley WIlliams said, catching her breath after closing out the Wolves, perhaps fully realizing the difficulty of navigating the Big East. "Yeah, Tuesday was hard and we all know that Boone is strong. But I was super proud how the girls came out tonight -- West Ridge is always a big competitor and (the Wolves') Logan Kemp is an amazing coach."
The pivotal win left the Vikings 7-3 overall and, more importantly, 2-1 inside the conference.
Credit the kids, their coach insisted.
"I want to give credit to them because they stayed positive and they dominated out there," Williams said. "I'm super proud of my girls."
Williams was guiding Elizabethton to a Region 1-AA berth last year before she returned to her alma mater to replace Mary C. Johnson, whose 2023 campaign was the last of a 17-year career in which she became Tennessee High's winningest volleyball coach of all time.
Only two players graduated from last year's THS's team, but that was hardly the case with West Ridge, which graduated nine seniors from a squad that shut out a whopping 32 opponents while winning 37 matches a year ago.
And, for a kicker, West Ridge graduated 10 seniors from its 2022 region championship squad.
Consequently, for the first time since the school's inaugural campaign, Kemp is now dealing with a largely unproven cast.
"You say we're young, but we have eight seniors," the veteran noted. "It's just, when we say young, I think it's more like inexperience at the varsity level. So, because we've had big (graduating) classes go through (the first three years of the new school), our seniors this season haven't had as much varsity experience."
The Wolves (3-4, 0-3) had their moments against Tennessee High, like when they nearly recovered from an 18-10 deficit before dropping the first set, and then maintaining that momentum to lead wire-to-wire and claim the second set, evening the match.
But the Vikings put their foot down at that point, and the Wolves never really threatened again.
"We're working through some of those mental lapses, some of those errors that are self-inflicted," Kemp said. "But in this conference, all the teams are good, so you really don't have time to be able to work through those. So we've really, really gotta grow up quickly."
Tennessee High is already a veteran squad despite its relative youth, and it showed.
THS took Game 1 after scoring eight straight points to break a 10-10 deadlock. Dropping the second game only seemed to sharpen the Vikings, who opened the third set by gaining a quick 7-1 edge on their way to a runaway win.
And behind the energetic play of sophom*ore Zoey Phillips, who swapped sides to fill for injured outside hitter Skylar Hoffman, the Vikings never trailed in the fourth and final set.
"Oh my goodness, Zoey ... she really came out here and showed what she can do on the outside," Williams gushed. "She had been playing right side for us, and unfortunately the girl who had been playing outside for us (Hoffman) broke her toe yesterday in weightlifting class.
"But Zoey, I knew she could play outside -- she's done both for us. She came out here and she proved that she could be over there. She had some great blocks and some amazing kills, just being a great teammate."
Phillips finished with 10 kills and four blocks to support the play of two of Tennessee High's stalwarts, junior Ashton Blair (17 kills, 13 digs) and senior Erin Littleton (12 kills, 4 blocks).
"We had some big shoes to fill with one of our outsides getting hurt, but I think everyone pulled together and played our game very well," said the 6-foot Littleton, one of just three seniors on the team. "We try to keep a positive mindset every day, on the court and off the court. "
Junior veterans Addy Gentry (20 digs) and Bree Adams (25 assists) also played well for Williams, as did sophom*ore Emily Curtin (19 assists) and junior Camden Ward (12 digs).
"All of them, every single one of them -- I can't even mention all their names because it was truly a team win," Williams said. "Any time I made a sub, I wasn't worried because every player coming off the bench was just as strong as the one they were replacing.
"And you know, it's really sweet, too, because Ashton, Bree and Erin were actually on my travel team when I first started coaching (AAU ball, in 2018). It's just sweet."
West Ridge was led statistically by Kami Clark with seven kills, Aubrey Killen with 11 digs, Remi Smith with 10 digs and Maggie Niebruegge with 22 digs.
