The Apalachee High School volleyball team keeps making program history this season.
Coach Joey Alfonso’s team won the Area 8-AAAAA title Saturday with back-to-back wins against Gainesville. The Lady Wildcats have now won the regular season region title as well as the tournament championship. AHS will enter the state tournament as a No. 1 seed. State play begins Thursday at Apalachee.
“It’s big for our program,” Alfonso said. “For us to be able to do this means a lot. We’ve competed against several teams with club players and defeated them. We hope the success we’ve enjoyed in recent seasons will continue to help our program grow.”
The Lady Wildcats began the area tournament by dispatching of Salem 25-21 last Thursday. That pushed AHS in the Saturday’s matches where it opened with a 25-10, 25-17 win against Flowery Branch. That victory assured AHS a spot in state, but the Lady Wildcats were far from down.
In the first matchup with Gainesville, the Lady Wildcats took a 25-10, 25-19 victory. The two teams then met again in a best-of-three match with AHS claiming the region crown 25-23, 25-12, 14-25, 25-23.
The Lady Wildcats did not lose against an area opponent during the regular season or the tournament.
Alfonso credits the team for overcoming the loss of libero Kimberly Vang mid-season.
“We can still play a little better,” the coach said. “We are still making some mistakes. We are averaging 10 unforced errors a game. We are going to have to outscore people at times. We are passing it better. We are playing well with our revamped lineup.”
Sherry Phommally was the Area Player of the Year while Ryan Burke was named to the All-Area first team as a middle hitter. Lauren MacDowell was named second team All-Area. MacDowell had more assists than any player in the area in 2012.
In addition, Morgan Vandergriff, Katie Dean and Taylor Sayles drew the praise of their coach for the area tournament as well as their play in the regular season. Also, Cammie Alfonso was second team All-Area as a setter.
The opening round of state will prove a tough challenge for the Lady Wildcats as they host Sequoyah High School from Cherokee County. The Lady Chiefs compete in Region 7-AAAAA and enter the postseason ranked No. 8 in the state.
Several AHS team members have compiled impressive statistics this fall.
