A spartan effort comes up short as Ringgold falls to GAC
Ringgold High School head volleyball coach Ashley Boren knew coming into last Tuesday’s Class AAA second round match with Greater Atlanta Christian that her Lady Tigers were going to have their work cut out for them facing the No. 4-ranked Spartans, and there were moments in the match when the Blue-and-White stood toe-to-toe and more than held their own.
Unfortunately for the home team, there just weren’t enough of those moments.
Cheered on by an appreciative Ringgold crowd and a boisterous student sections, the Area 6 champions put up a valiant effort, but ultimately couldn’t overcome the Spartans’ talent as the Lady Tigers saw their season come to an end with a 25-13, 25-17, 25-17 loss.
“I looked at (GAC’s) record. I knew they were ranked high and I knew it would be tough,” Boren said. “Those private schools around Atlanta always have good teams.”
Ringgold (26-17) got the home crowd on its feet early as it jumped out to a 4-2 lead, but GAC (30-13) would counter with a 6-0 run. Still, the Lady Tigers refused to make it easy on the visitors from Norcross and trimmed the deficit down to 11-9 on a kill by Ricki Lynn Bickley.
However, GAC quickly reeled off the next three points, forcing Boren to call a timeout, but things wouldn’t get any better for the Lady Tigers after the break. The Spartans extended their run to 10 straight points behind the power hitting of 6-foot-1 sophomore outside hitter Ali Schreiber, who had nine kills in the opening set.
GAC got out to a 15-9 lead in the second set, but Ringgold would chip away at the lead following a timeout. A 4-0 run, highlighted by a big block from Chloe Hall, chopped the GAC advantage down to 1513, but the rally would be short-lived as GAC used the serving of Jessica Wright for a 6-1 spurt that reestablished control of the set.
With Schreiber on the back row early in the GAC rotation in
in each of the last 11 seasons.
Gordon Lee 4, Schley County 1
The Lady Trojans showed a bit of rust from a near two-week layoff since winning the Region 6-A title on Oct. 6, but they got a solid pitching and clutch hitting from senior Canaan Burnett to keep the Lady Bulldogs at bay in the opening game of the doubleheader.
Burnett’s sacrifice fly plated Reagan Thompson with the game’s first run in the bottom of the first inning and her one-out run-scoring single in the third brought in Gracey Kruse to make it 2-0.
Faith Alexander drew a two-out walk in the fourth and swiped second base. Thompson drew a walk before Kruse hit a hot shot to first that was misplayed, allowing Alexander to scoot home with the third run. Burnett capped the scoring by leading off the fifth inning with a solo homer.
Burnett allowed just five hits, walked one and struck out 10 in the circle, including three big K’s in a row after Schley had put what would have been the tying run on at third with no outs in the top of the third inning.
She also got help from her defense. Kruse, patrolling in centerfield, threw out a runner at third base and later doubled up a runner at second after catching the first out in the top of the seventh.
The Lady Bulldogs would later get a run on a Gordon Lee fielding error with two outs in the seventh, but Thompson would end the game after throwing out a runner at third at the end of the play.
Burnett and Alexander each had two hits, while Thompson and Kruse had one apiece.
Gordon Lee 20, Schley County 1
Any rust was long gone by the time the first pitch of the nightcap arrived. Playing as the visitors in Game 2, the Lady Trojans, pounded out 19 hits and took advantage of six Lady Bulldogs’ errors.
Gordon Lee (30-3) broke things open with five runs in the top of the first before adding four more in the second. Two more runs in the third built the lead up to 11-0 before the Lady Trojans put up a ninespot in the fourth.
Schley (17-13), who managed just two hits, once again pushed home a run in its final at-bat.
Paxton Grimes homered as part of a 3-for-4 performance. She drove in three runs and scored four times, while Burnett was 3-for3 with two runs and two RBIs. Katherine Grace McElhaney went 2-for-2 with three RBIs. Thompson, Kruse and Janie Durham each drove in two runs in the rout, while Kirbie Bradley and Emma Minghini each collected one RBI.
Minghini was the beneficiary of all the run support. The freshman struck out five and did not walk a single batter in her four innings in the circle.