The Apalachee High School volleyball team will step into the state spotlight this week when they begin play in the Class AAAA tournament.
Coach Joey Alfonso’s team opens play against Glynn Academy, the No. 1 seed from Region 2-AAAA. AHS emerged from the Region 8-AAAA tournament as a No. 4 seed.
“We have been playing rough the last two weeks,” Alfonso said. “We were not playing well as a team. We then had fall break and that factored in. We were rusty and half asleep at times. We improved as the tournament went on and had one of our better matches against Flowery Branch. It was good to see that. I hope we can build off of it.”
AHS, who enters state play at 36-6 overall, will face somewhat of an unknown in the Glynn Academy Terrors.
“There were very few crossover games to compare,” Alfonso said. “Greenbrier played Clarke Central and beat them in a close match. Glynn was able to defeat Greenbrier although it was a competitive match.”
In last week’s Region 8-AAAA tournament, the Lady Wildcats fell to Heritage before rebounding with a win against Habersham Central.
The team reached state with a win in two games against Cedar Shoals Saturday morning before falling again to Flowery Branch.
“Now that we are in state, it’s hard to tell how things will stack up,” Alfonso said. “We are still a young team. We’ve had two sophomores in the starting lineup all season and even some of our seniors played sparingly before this year.”
Qualifying for the state tournament was a major goal for AHS, especially after the fast 22-0 start.
“To make state is a major thing,” Alfonso said. “We have a good team although I know Glynn Academy does too. When we went back to the region tournament Saturday we took the floor ready to go. We did some team bonding over fall break and the girls were determined to win. We hope to take that attitude with us into state play.”
Rockdale County will be the No. 1 seed from Region 8-AAAA for the state volleyball tournament followed by Clarke Central, Flowery Branch and AHS.
Also on Saturday the all-area team was announced for the 2010 season.
The Lady Wildcats were represented by Katelyn MacDowell, who was first team, and Sara Cole, who was named second team.
Alfonso said the team plans to leave Wednesday for the long trip to Brunswick.
The coach said he is looking to get in a practice session after the team makes the trip to the coast.
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The Winder-Barrow High School volleyball team wrapped up its 2010 season at the Region 8-AAAA tournament last week.
The Lady Doggs opened with a match againt Clarke Central, a No. 2 seed, 25-22, 25-20. The final match against Flowery Branch saw WBHS fall 25-9, 26-24.
In the second match, the Lady Doggs had to face the No. 1 seed from the north side of the region after Flowery Branch was upset by host Cedar Shoals.
Coach David Rows will look to build on this season’s performance for next fall.
