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  • (Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen) Dalton High senior outside hitter Susan Meinders puts the ball over the net as Southeast Whitfield’s Gabby Gonzalez (8) and Wendy Perez defend during the Area 7-4A title match earlier this month. Both teams are in the second round of state.

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October 23, 2012

Big second helping

Four volleyball schools from area in action today

Devin Golden devingolden@daltoncitizen.com

This is where Southeast Whitfield’s volleyball season has ended the past three years.

And this is the Lady Raiders’ Class of 2013’s last chance to rid itself of bad memories of the second round at the state tournament.

Southeast is the lone area volleyball team competing on its home court today for the second round of state, which has been a roadblock for the program for a while. In Class 4A action involving local schools, the Lady Raiders host Jonesboro at 5:30 p.m., Dalton travels to Woodland-Henry for a 5:30 p.m. match and Northwest Whitfield plays at Columbus at 5 p.m. In Class 3A, North Murray is at Atlanta’s Woodward Academy, also at 5 p.m.

Last season, Southeast won its first-round matchup in the Class 3A bracket but fell to Riverwood in the second round. In 2010, Southeast surprised Veterans in the first round but lost to Columbus the following week. In 2009, the Lady Raiders beat Shaw in the first round but fell to Oconee County in the second round. Southeast’s first trip to the state volleyball tournament was 2006 — coach Jake Dickey’s first season with the program — and it also included a second-round exit.

Four trips to the field of 16.

None to the final eight.

“There’s probably more pressure on this round than any other round just because of that fact,” Dickey said. “Kind of like getting over the hump for the (area) championship, it kind of tells our girls, ‘Hey, we can get farther.’

“The thing in the past was we always had a really tough matchup. We’ve just known going into the games that we almost had to play perfect just to have a chance to win, whereas (today) we think we have a good chance to win.”



Southeast’s three seniors — McKayla Burse, Hannah Graham and Megan Collins —  have only known the second round as an exit.

“We really want to get past this second round and go into the third round,” Collins said. “Me and Hannah have been playing since we were freshmen, so this gives us an extra push since we’re seniors.”

Jonesboro is ranked 10th in the Ga.PrepCountry.com Class 4A coaches poll, which has Southeast ranked second. The Lady Raiders, the Area 7 champs, are 32-10 overall after sweeping Lanier 25-16, 25-3, 25-13 in a best-of-five match in last week’s opening round. The Lady Cardinals are 32-7, finished second in Area 4 and swept Fayette County in the first round.

“I know they’re athletic and have a lot of basketball players from their (state semifinals) team last year,” Dickey said. “So they have a couple who have a good vertical.”

Dalton is also trying to get past the second round after recent failed attempts.

The Lady Catamounts made it to this point in 2010 and 2011, but no further, falling to North Hall and St. Pius X, respectively. Now Dalton (23-15) faces the team Jonesboro lost to in the Area 4 championship, fifth-ranked Woodland, in an attempt to advance to the quarterfinals.

“That’s been our goal since Day 1,” Dalton coach Joey Wills said. “We wanted to go deeper than we went last year. ... We ended up in a pretty good spot being the No. 2 seed (from Area 7).”

However, the Lady Wolfpack (38-3) have the most wins and least losses of any ranked Class 4A school. They beat Shaw in the first round, losing the second game and winning closely in the third and fourth games to advance.

“They have one strong hitter in the middle, and other than that they’re just a really solid, consistent team,” Wills said, noting any team that finishes a season with only three losses, regardless of schedule strength, “has to be pretty powerful.”

Wills believes the Lady Cats are prepared for a team like Woodland after a regular season and area tournament that included multiple matches with Southeast, Heritage-Catoosa and Northwest, which are all still alive in the playoffs.

“We’ve seen strong hitting, strong tipping and strong defenses,” he said. “That’s good for us and I think it helps us prepare for this part of the season and our goal, which we set back in July when we started working out.”

Northwest Whitfield’s Lady Bruins (18-21) had to ride the bus in last week’s opening round, so another hour both ways is nothing to them.

After traveling two and a half hours to beat Johnson-Gainesville, Northwest must ride three and a half hours to play fourth-ranked Columbus. But the Lady Bruins are on a roll after overcoming their No. 5 seed at the area tournament to make the state playoffs, and they grew accustomed to traveling long distances for road matches in 2010 and 2011, when they competed in a Class 4A region made up of schools closer to Atlanta than Northwest Georgia.

“We traveled a lot last year, so I think that has kind of helped them get an advantage,” Lady Bruins coach Jennifer Quinn said. “I’m really not worried about that.”

Columbus (27-25) finished second in Area 3 and swept Locust Grove in the opening round. Among the Lady Blue Devils’ strong points are a middle hitter who is 6 feet, 2 inches tall.

“We’ve seen a clip here and a clip there, a couple things they do offensively,” Quinn said. “ ... They’re going to be strong offensively, but defense is what has been winning our games. It’s going to be a faster-paced game. We’re just going to have to adjust to it.”

And Quinn isn’t concerned at all about the ride.

“I think the girls play well on the road,” she said.

North Murray’s Lady Mountaineers (17-13) also will hit the road again, although the distance is not as long this time.

However, their opponent’s quality might be more substantial.

After sweeping Jackson in the first round, North Murray faces second-ranked Woodward Academy (39-13), which swept Johnson-Savannah last week, not allowing more than seven points in any game.

The Lady War Eagles are 10-time state champions. They won the first-ever GHSA title in 1993, five straight in Class 4A from 2001 to 2005 and three straight in Class 3A from 2008 to 2010 before falling in the semifinals last season.

North Murray coach Connie Hudgins did not return multiple messages left by The Daily Citizen on her cell phone on Saturday and Monday.

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