The Jefferson Lady Dragons volleyball team moved into the post season with area tournament play last week, facing Athens Christian, North Oconee and Athens Academy.
State playoff action begins on Saturday, when the Lady Dragons face off against Hebron Christian.
Jefferson was the winner of the most recent match between the two schools back on Aug. 20.
The Lady Dragons began the area tournament by defeating Athens Christian 2-0, with set scores of 25-9 and 25-21.
Jefferson started strong with 10 aces in the first set. In the second set Athens Christian stepped up their play and kept the match close but Jefferson’s hitters stepped up. Cassie Metcalf and Taylor Cramsey each had five aces in the match. Cramsey also led the team with 10 kills. Stephanie Fincher added four and Cassie Metcalf had three. The setting was anchored by Amanda Daniel with six assists, while
Carolyn Carreno had four and Taylor Cramsey added three.
Next up, the Lady Dragons faced the number 10 team in the state, North Oconee. Jefferson won the match 2-1, with set scores of 21-25, 25-22 and 25-23.
Jefferson didn’t get off to a good start in the first set, finding themselves trailing 1-7. After a time out the Lady Dragons bounced back with tremendous fire but fell short of a great comeback. The next two sets were both slugfests. Jefferson passed and hit well in both set two and three, but the biggest difference was court coverage. The Lady Dragons had several huge plays digging balls and keeping points going.
Eden Starnes went 4-4 in hitting during the second set. For the match Stephanie Fincher had seven kills, Taylor Cramsey had seven kills, Eden Starnes five kills and Cassie Metcalf added three. Amanda Daniel had seven assists and Carolyn Carreno had six.
Jefferson next faced eventual area tournament champion Athens Academy. It was a close match, but Athens Academy came away with the 2-0 win, with set scores of 21-25 and 17-25.
Jefferson was led by Stephanie Fincher with seven kills and Amanda Daniel had four assists.
“Our normal strong serving was negated by a very good passing Athens Academy team and they made more big plays than we did,” said coach Michael Paul.
Losing that match placed Jefferson into the loser’s bracket, where they faced North Oconee for the second time in the tournament.
North Oconee proved to be too tough the second time around, defeating Jefferson 2-0 with set scores of 17-25 and 15-25.
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Jackson Herald.
