For the first time in program history, the White County Lady Warriors have claimed a regular season volleyball area title.
The Lady Warriors posted a pair of wins over North Hall and Chestatee Tuesday night in Cleveland, finishing off a 6-0 run through the Area 7-AAA schedule to wrap up the regular season championship and earn the No. 1 seed in the 7-AAA tournament in October. Along the the No. 1 seed, the Lady Warriors get to host the area tournament Oct. 14-15.
The Warriors had to rally to keep their unbeaten area record intact against North Hall after dropping the first set, but the WCHS won the final two sets to take a 2-1 win, and then finished off the night with a 2-0 victory over Chestatee. The Lady Warriors not only posted a perfect record in area play, but they only lost one set during the six matches.
WCHS head coach Shannon Smith said despite dropping the first set of the night, the Lady Warriors never lost their focus or composure.
“We tend to get behind and have to pull out a lot of matches, and it stresses me out, but they stay the course,” Smith said. “We've done that in a lot of matches, been able to pull out a lot of wins. We've gotten ourselves out of a lot of tough spots by just staying in the game, playing our game and finishing it. Finishing is one of our strong suits. They don't give up, even if we lose a set, they keep playing. I'm very proud of them. They have worked really hard this season.”
North Hall jumped out to a 9-2 lead in the opening set of the match and the Lady Warriors could never quite recover. WCHS tied things up at 21-21 on an ace by Camryn Dorsey, but could never take the lead as North Hall closed out the set, 25-23.
Things started to turn in White County's favor in the second set as the Lady Warriors ran off eight straight points to start the set. Dasha Cannon, Jenna Ash and Rusty Dye all scored at the net in the early run.
Dye had three aces, and Ash and Shelby Spain scored at the net to push the lead to 19-5. Cannon scored at the net for a 23-10 lead, and Dye had a kill and a block to close out the 25-11 win.
In the third set, Dye had back-to-back aces, and Ash had a kill off an assist from Linsey Burke to give WCHS a 6-4 lead. Ash followed with a pair of aces to for an 8-4 advantage.
Spain had a kill and an ace, and Cannon added a shot at the net and a kill for a 13-6 lead. Dye finished off the third set with a kill off a Burke pass for a 15-8 to clinch the match.
Dye led the attack with 11 kills to go along with eight aces, a block and an assist.
Cannon had seven kills, six digs, and an ace, while Ash had five kills, two aces, two digs and two assists. Spain had nine digs, five kills, and two aces. Burke had 25 assists, nine digs, and three aces,
Dorsey had three kills and three aces, and Macy Boggs had nine digs and two assists.
In the nightcap, the Lady Warriors were a little sluggish in the opening set, but came through with a 25-23 win. The closed out the match in the second set, jumping out to an 8-3 lead on the way to 25-12 win. Abbie Rankl finished the match off with a kill.
Dye had seven kills, a block, and an ace, Spain had five kills, four digs, two aces, and a block, Ash, Dorsey, and Clarie Beckman each had two kills, with Dorsey added a block. Ash had three aces, five digs, and three assists, while Burke had 20 assists and four dig, and Boggs added three digs, and an assist and a kill.
The Lady Warriors host Habersham Central in the final home match of the season this afternoon in Cleveland.