DALTON, Ga. — Dalton hosted three other Region 7-AAA high school volleyball teams in a round-robin format Thursday, and the Lady Catamounts came out victorious all the way around.
They defeated Pickens 2-0 and Heritage 2-1, but the key match was in between. It was a matchup of state-ranked teams in the Georgia Prep Country coaches’ poll, and ninth-ranked Dalton edged seventh-ranked Southeast Whitfield 2-1.
Each game took a different path getting there, but every one was close at the end. The Lady Catamounts won 27-25, 26-28, 26-24.
“We’re a very good, scrappy team,” Dalton coach Joey Wills said. “We’ve got good hitting, but what really came through for us tonight was serving and defense.”
Once Dalton battled back from down 16-11 in the first game to tie it at 18, a one-point lead was all either team could produce other than the hosts’ 24-22 edge and the final score.
Dalton had a run in succession in the second game that turned an 8-3 deficit into a four-point lead. It fell behind 11-4 at the start of the third game and was on 19 when the Lady Raiders reached match point, but then the Lady Catamounts closed them out with a 7-0 run. Wills said the common factor in both scoring streaks was Susan Meinders’ serving.
“We got behind all three games against Southeast because we didn’t move our feet,” Wills said. “Once we got focused, that’s when we started to play good volleyball, but so did Southeast. This was one of the best matchups in this area in a long time.”
Adding to Southeast’s woes, it had lost 2-1 to Heritage the match before.
“Tonight we were a little bit off,” said coach Jake Dickey, whose Lady Raiders rebounded and beat Pickens County 25-16, 25-16. “We have to figure out we have to put a whole game together. That’s what it boils down to.
“We had some bad bounces in the Heritage game. It’s just been tough tonight. It gives us something to work on.”
Heritage, which had beaten Pickens County 2-1 in its second match, took the first game from Dalton 25-23 in its final match before dropping two 25-19 decisions.
“We had a whole new rotation tonight. When you lose, you do something different,” said coach Becky Forkner, whose Lady Generals came into their first region matches of the season with a 4-5 overall record. “I just think they were moving better. Last year we lost seven people. This is going to end up being a strong group. We looked a lot better than we did the last few games. We were covering the floor a lot better.”
Dalton (14-4, 3-0) got a spark from Natalie Rendon, who had 20 of her 32 kills against Southeast Whitfield. Wills praised the efforts of middle blockers Vivian Butler and Molly Martin and the hustle of Caroline Satterwhite.
Amanda Trotter was Heritage’s kills leader with 19. Katie Bishop served 13 aces and was second in assists with 17.
Junior Megan Collins totaled 53 kills for Southeast (20-5, 2-2), including a school-record 23 against the Lady Generals. The Lady Raiders’ only senior, Carli Ledford, totaled 45 digs and Hannah Graham had 82 assists to go with seven kills and five aces.