Comfortable in the quarterfinals

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(Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen) Southeast Whitfield’s Yolanda Melgarejo defends at the net during Tuesday’s second-round state tournament match against Jonesboro. The Lady Raiders won in four games to reach today’s quarterfinals.

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October 27, 2012

Comfortable in the quarterfinals

Southeast Whitfield volleyball prepares for Woodland-Henry

Devin Golden devingolden@daltoncitizen.com The Dalton Daily Citizen Sat Oct 27, 2012, 06:43 AM EDT

CHATSWORTH — Southeast Whitfield volleyball coach Jake Dickey believes his Lady Raiders are playing without any pressure.

That could be dangerous — for the other team.

After three straight seasons of losing in the second round of the state tournament, the Lady Raiders (33-10) beat Jonesboro in four games Tuesday to reach today’s Class 4A quarterfinals and assure this year’s Southeast lineup of going further in the bracket than any other in program history. Southeast, the No. 2 team in the Ga.PrepCountry.com Class 4A coaches poll, hosts fifth-ranked Woodland-Henry (39-3) at 5:30 p.m. today with a spot in Wednesday’s semifinals at Atlanta’s Marist School at stake.

Although both programs started the state playoffs as No. 1 seeds — Woodland won the Area 3 title — the final eight teams were reseeded after the quarterfinals. Southeast is now the No. 4 seed and the Lady Wolfpack is No. 5.

Dickey believes the Lady Raiders put a lot of pressure on themselves to do two things in the past few weeks — win the Area 7 title and advance to at least the quarterfinals. Now that both tasks are accomplished, Dickey has noticed a difference in his players’ moods.

“The last couple practices I’ve seen almost like a (feeling of) relief,” Dickey said Thursday. “It’s almost like we’re playing better. I know the seniors put a lot of pressure on themselves to win the (area) again, and we did that. It’s not that we weren’t happy that we did that, but you could tell there was some held-back focus. Then we (beat Jonesboro), and that game was the one they wanted to win.”

With his team “just building on something we’ve never done before,” he sees no apprehension among the Lady Raiders.

“I feel like we’re just ready to go and ready to play,” he said.

But for Southeast senior setter Hannah Graham, the Area 7 Player of the Year, reaching the quarterfinals is not the ultimate goal.

“We want to (keep going) because we’re seniors,” Graham said. “It’s our last year.”

Woodland poses a tough test, though. The Lady Wolfpack topped Shaw in four games in the first round before beating Area 7 runner-up Dalton this week. And they also know Southeast’s last opponent well, having beaten Jonesboro for the Area 3 title.

“I know they have an athletic middle and good outside hitter,” said Dickey, who has guided Southeast to the playoffs in five of his seven seasons leading the program. “(Jonesboro coach Paul Cook) gave me some information about them.”

Woodland is “a little less athletic” than Jonesboro, Dickey said, but that’s not a knock on the Lady Wolfpack.

“Jonesboro was probably the most athletic team in the state,” he said. “They were ridiculous.”

Other comparisons between South-east’s last opponent and the one they’ll face today are better passing and “some trouble on serve receives,” Dickey said. He previously called Graham and Yasmeen Paloblanco two of the best servers in the area and believes that aspect of the game is one of the Lady Raiders’ strengths.

“We’re going to serve them tough,” Dickey said. “They have some openings on defense.”

Today’s winner will play the winner from No. 8 seed Carrollton at top-ranked, top-seeded Sandy Creek. The other quarterfinals matchups are No. 3 seed Marist hosting No. 6 seed River Ridge and No. 2 seed Columbus hosting No. 7 seed Veterans. Marist is ranked third, Columbus is fourth and Veterans is sixth.