Week at the Net: Honoring seniors; Warner Robins teams above the net in Region 1-6A

It was a busy week at the net as two local teams celebrated their seniors, and three saw how they measured up against other 6A competition. Their Region 2-6A competition is considered to be some of the toughest in the state across all sports, and they didn’t disappoint in the season’s first “playdate” that saw lots of fans show up to Veterans High School to show their support.

Starting Off: Northside Lady Eagles honor three seniors facing off against Perry Lady Panthers

The Northside Lady Eagles hosted the Perry Lady Panthers in an epic match on senior night honoring three of their seniors: Gabby Tate, Emily Deighan and Kendall Coleman. The Lady Eagles went the distance, but Perry went the distance and captured the match two sets to one.

Both teams battle the entirety of the first set, with neither capturing a lead larger than three points until the Lady Eagles led 17-13.

By that point Perry called a timeout to slow down the pressure, and it allowed them to tie the game at 21.

The set was back and forth until Perry was able to pull away and capture the first set 25-23.

The second set proved to be just as exciting, as the Lady Eagles were able to capture the win by going into extra points and winning 28-26 to force the third and final set.

That effort was supported by Coleman, who was set up for a kill by Deighan late in the set to force extra points.

There was a lot of anticipation in the final decisive set, but the Lady Eagles were able to jump out to an early lead.

Perry fired back, but the Lady Eagles took the lead back with well-played points from Peyton Clements, Xaniya Jordan and Deighan to take a 12-11 lead.

Perry captured the serve and didn’t let go, closing out the match with a 16-14 win.

Intermission: Warhawks, Bears fared well, Eagles had tough competition.

The Veterans Lady Warhawks hosted round one of the Region 1-6A playdate, competing against the Lee County Lady Trojans.

The Lady ‘Hawks dropped the first match to the Lady Trojans by scores of 29-27 and 25-20.

The Lady Trojans blitzed the Lady ‘Hawks with 19 kills led by Kinsley Timmons with five and Savannah Singleton with two aces in the match. They also added six blocks, Timmons with three, and eight digs to capture the win.

The next match was between the Lady ‘Hawks and Eagles, both looking to bounce back.

This time, though, the Lady ‘Hawks were able to push through in two sets winning 25-16 and 25-10.

They starting clicking with kills by outside hitters and dominance at the service line, and received many serves by passing errors from the Lady Eagles.

The Lady Eagles tried to rally, but couldn’t string together enough points to gain momentum.

Before the Lady ‘Hawks faced off against the Houston County Lady Bears, a powerhouse in Region 1-6A, HoCo had to go through the Thomas County Central Lady Jackets and Lady Eagles.

HoCo put on a dominant display against TCC with a 25-11 final in the first set, led by strong serving from Jessie Gober and libero Jeneal Balbin by taking command with placement of serves that caused TCC to commit several serve-receive, passing and hitting errors.

Senior settor Harley Mitchell and sophomore Ava Mason fed outside hitters Sammy Kurpis and Sarah Dunford for kills that TCC wasn’t able to handle.

The second match was more of the same, with HoCo capturing the set and match 25-15.

HoCo blazed out to a 13-4 lead with service control from Kirsten Acevedo, Gober and Mason making up most of those 13 points.

Haley Tye Mitchell laid down a lot of dump sets on the second hit, keeping TCC off balance and pushing the lead further in their win.

HoCo also breezed through their second match against the Lady Eagles, with a score of 25-13 in both sets.

Just like the first match, HoCo took control early with strong servers and outside hitter play.

Gober had the final points in the first set with an ace that hit on the left-side out of bound slike.

The second set ended up identical to the first, and though the Lady Eagles tried to bounce back with strong play from Clements and Deighan, it wasn’t enough to hang with HoCo.

The final match of the night was a three-set grudge match between HoCo and the Lady ‘Hawks, and HoCo drew first blood.

The first set ended 25-23, but was tight the whole way. Neither team led by more than a few points, and each had long lasting rallies to fire up fans and their team.

Both teams had an offensive arsenal that involved setters to provide feeds to hitters and add dump-sets of their own. For HoCo Taylor Lamontagne, Mitchell and Mason were key players in the first win.

The Lady ‘Hawks didn’t go laying down, however, as they captured the second set 25-20 in another close affair.

HoCo hung close, but couldn’t string together enough points to get close to the Lady ‘Hawks, who tied up the series and forced a decisive third set.

In that third set the Lady ‘Hawks kept the momentum and won the set and match 15-8.

Both teams finished 2-1 on the evening, and on Monday, Oct. 2 all the teams with gather at Houston County High School to play additional matches to decide matches for the road to state.

Night Cap: Panthers honor seniors playing three Region 4A matches.

Perry, in competition against 4A teams, dominated all three matches. They only required six sets in three matches to go undefeated on an evening in which they recognized their seniors.

They started right out of the gate dominating the Hardaway Lady Hawks 25-10 and 25-13.

Perry took control of the service line with placement and assists from Emma Smith to Olivia Martin, Zoe Lowe and Carrington Daniel to capture many kills in their win against Hardaway.

Libero Hailee Hudson was also key to starting their momentum by passing to Smith to apply the pressure.

In their next two matches they yielded similar results: Perry beat shaw 25-14 and 25-21, and took down Westside 25-5 and 25-8.

The second and third matches featured strong play from the Lady Panthers, pulling off the victory over the Shaw Lady Raiders 25-14, 25-21 and against the Westside Lady Seminoles 25-5, 25-8 after pouring the points following their senior night celebration.

Perry was able to move the ball and had many point saving digs by back row players Hudson and Allie Shugart along with offensive power in the front row.

With the three-match sweep Perry locked up the one seed for the 1-4A region tournament.

Considering the Panthers have a young team, the talent should be able to grow this year and in future years. With the 3 match sweep Perry was able to lockup the 4A-1 #1 seed for the region tournament.

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