Prep volleyball: Dalton, Northwest and North Murray are swept out of playoffs

COLUMBUS — Northwest Whitfield upset an area champion last week in the opening round of the Class 4A state volleyball tournament.

After Tuesday’s second-round match at Columbus High, Lady Bruins coach Jennifer Quinn was just left feeling upset about her team’s performance in a 25-17, 25-17, 25-8 loss.

“We’re better than this,” said Quinn, whose Lady Bruins (18-22) — the fourth seed from Area 7 — swept Area 8 champion Johnson-Gainesville in the first round. “I hate that this was our last match, because it wasn’t indicative of the team we had this season. Columbus was a tough team, but we should’ve given them a better match than that.”

In other matches involving local teams, both Dalton and North Murray were swept in second-round action in 4A and 3A, respectively, as their seasons also came to an end.

With Tuesday’s win, Columbus (28-25) — the Area 3 runner-up and the fourth-ranked team in the Ga.PrepCountry.com Class 4A coaches poll — advances to the quarterfinals for the seventh straight season. The Lady Blue Devils will find out their opponent after a seeding meeting is held today in Atlanta.

“We did a good job of serving, getting our passes where we wanted them and setting to our middle attackers,” Columbus coach Donna Fleming said. “If we’re serving the ball well, we want to make it tough on our opponents to get the ball back over so we can set our middle hitters.”

The Lady Blue Devils ran out to a 6-1 lead in the first game before Northwest used a small run, finished off by a block by Peyton Maret, to close the gap at 9-5. Columbus then scored the next eight straight and 14 of the next 15.

“(Columbus’) middle hitters were scoring a lot of points, but we gave them a lot of points, too,” Quinn said. “This match really should’ve been closer than it was.”

Northwest hung around into the middle stages of the second game, using a hitting error by Columbus to get to within 13-8, but five straight points by Columbus made it 18-8.

That was when Northwest showed the mettle that allowed it to make a late-season run to the state playoffs and post a road win in the opening round. The Lady Bruins went on an 8-1 run to trim the deficit to 18-16, with a pair of kills by McKinley Hopkins accounting for the final two points in the outburst.

However, Columbus regained control, using two aces by Kennedy Smith and two kills plus a block by middle hitter Brianna Goggins.

The third game was similar, with Northwest playing well in the early stages, holding a 4-3 lead and then trailing 7-6 following a kill by the Lady Bruins’ Sarah Thomas. That was when Columbus removed all doubt as to the outcome, going on 8-0 run to go up 15-6. The Lady Blue Devils finished the match on another 8-0 run, taking 18 of the final 20 points in the match.

Mary Kate Allen and Hopkins each led Northwest with three kills and a block. Thomas had two kills and Katie Kirk and Shelby Douglas finished with two digs apiece for the Lady Bruins.

“We started out the year (picked) eighth in our area (by coaches),” said Quinn, who loses six seniors. “We clawed our way to the top by the end. We were the fifth seed in the area tournament, beat (fourth-seeded) Gilmer in our first match, and I think that win really gave us the confidence we needed to make it to the state playoffs. This team has come a long way this season.”

• Also in 4A, Dalton lost 25-23, 25-16, 25-22 at Woodland-Henry to end its season in the same round it did the previous two years.

Outside hitter Susan Meinders had 16 kills to lead the Lady Catamounts (23-16) in the final match of her high school career, while Molly Martin added 11 kills. Setter Kara Pendley, another senior, had 33 assists and four aces, Macie Noles chipped in 31 digs and Ashleigh Peters and Hannah Cox each tallied three kills.

Dalton coach Joey Wills said his squad, which finished second in Area 7, was “right there in all three games” but could not find the final push.

“For some reason, mentally we just weren’t there (at the end),” Wills said. “I don’t know what it is or what it was. ... We were in all three games and we just didn’t finish, which was disappointing to all of us. I feel like if we played the way we did some of our other matches this year — most of our other matches as a matter of fact — then we’d be moving on to the next round.”

The Lady Cats have struggled to do that for three years straight.

“We’ve got to take it further, and we already started planning that (Tuesday) after dinner,” Wills said. “‘What are we going to do different?’ That’s the sign of a good team.”

Fifth-ranked Woodland (39-3), the Area 4 champion, moves on to Saturday’s quarterfinals.

• North Murray lost 25-8, 25-7, 25-8 at Atlanta’s Woodward Academy in the second round of the Class 3A bracket.

Iliana Munguia tallied four assists and one kill to lead the Lady Mountaineers (17-14), Grace Phillips had two kills and a block and Casey Chapman collected one kill and one dig.

North Murray, the No. 3 seed from Area 4, swept its first-round match last week at Jackson to advance to the field of 12.

Woodward (40-13), a 10-time state champion, won the Area 2 title and is ranked No. 2 in 3A.

“We played good,” Lady Mountaineers coach Connie Hudgins said. “It’s just we’re playing against a private school who can recruit. They pay to go there so they can afford all the private instruction. They are going to be a private school who will end up winning state just like it always is going however many years back.

“We played good, but it’s just public versus private. ... Until (the) GHSA figures something out, it will be the same thing.”

This was the first state berth for North Murray volleyball.

“I told my girls that they have set the standard at North Murray and they set it high, being the top 12 in the state,” Hudgins said. “That’s not too bad having a program only for four years. There’s nothing to hang their head about, and they knew going in they would end up playing a private school. (Woodward Academy) is good.”

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Prep volleyball: Dalton, Northwest and North Murray are swept out of playoffs

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