Baylor’s Kate Kaufman (2) and Greyson Ingle (1) attempt to block a shot by Southeast Whitfield’s Serena Ramsey (10) during a volleyball match held Tuesday at the Baylor School.Southeast Whitfield plays best-of-three high school volleyball matches in Georgia but made the trip from Dalton to Baylor on Tuesday for a best-of-five match. As it turned out, Baylor was the best in three.
The Lady Red Raiders swept Southeast 25-17, 25-22, 25-13 in the battle of state powers.
Baylor has five returning starters from last year’s Division II-AA state-runner-up team. Southeast is coming off a season in which it advanced to the GHSA Class AAA round of 16. After reclassification, the Dalton school is rated No. 4 in Class AAAA in the Georgia Prep Country Website’s preseason top-10 coaches’ poll.
“Our region isn’t as strong, so we like to come up and play as many good teams as we can,” Southeast coach Jake Dickey said. “And Baylor’s a really good team. They get you down and keep you down.”
That was the case in the third game especially, when the hosts took the lead for good at 4-3. But the first two sets were tight throughout with Baylor managing to forge ahead down the stretch in both.