Gordon Lee set to face Pace for state
The Gordon Lee Lady Trojans begin the 2020 season with the goal of being the first team in program history to hang a volleyball banner, either as a state champion or as a state runner-up, in the school’s gym.
That banner was secured last Saturday. Now, it’s just a matter of what that banner will ultimately say.
For the first time in the 20-year history of program, Gordon Lee will play for a state championship following a sweep of Elite Scholars Academy of Jonesboro, 25-14, 25-18 and 25-22, in last Saturday’s Class AA/A Public School state semifinals in Chickamauga.
With the victory, Gordon Lee (37-11) will head to the Lake Point Complex in Emerson this Saturday at noon take on Area 5 champion Pace Academy of Atlanta for all the marbles.
“It feels awesome and the girls really deserve it,” head coach Adam Crowley said of his team’s first-ever state finals berth. “For several years now, we’ve been building and building and it’s just unfortunate that some of the girls in the past have run into some really good teams (in the playoffs).
“But this year, it’s all worked out. Everything just seems to be on our side. We didn’t win the (universal) coin flip, but somebody lost, so we ended up being able to stay at home. Everything has just fallen into place.”
After losing to the Royal Knights on the road in last year’s Final Four match, it took Gordon Lee about a dozen points to finally start to find its range and the Lady Trojans would go up 14-8 at the midway point of the opening set.
ESA would call time-out, hoping to halt the Lady Trojans’ momentum, but Gordon Lee refused to slow down and extended its lead to 22-14 on back-to-back aces by Brooklyn Hudson.
Arilyn Lee would hammer home a kill and Emoree Rogers collected a crosscourt kill to bring the Lady Trojans to set point before a Rogers block gave Gordon Lee the opening set.
The Lady Knights would get out to a 10-5 lead in the second set, looking to even the match. But the Lady Trojans would reel off seven consecutive points to take a 12-10 lead. ESA would tie it up at 16 and 18, but backto-back kills by Rogers and Hudson would put Gordon Lee in front for good.
Hudson would follow up with a block and back-toback kills before a kill by Sam Cramer and an ace by M.K. Roberts capped a final 7-0 run that gave the Lady Trojans set No. 2.
The Lady Knights would put up a fight in the third set and were on serve, trailing 24-22, hoping to extend the match. But their next serve would go over the endline to give Gordon Lee their
long-awaited Final Four victory.
Coach Tricia Goodwin credited her team’s maturity for the win.
“This is the third time in a row that these girls have been to the Final Four, but this is the first time we didn’t let it get in our heads,” she explained. “Their maturity level showed when they took the court today and that’s why I’m proud of them. They overcame themselves to win it.”
Hudson finished with 17 kills, eight digs and three aces. Rogers had 19 assists, five kills and a pair of blocks, while Cramer had 18 assists and seven kills. Lee picked up nine kills, nine digs and three aces, and Roberts had six kills, six digs and five assists in the win.
“We’re all really excited,” Crowley said. “Our goal was to get a banner. We’ve got one, but we just want to win one more (match). We can do it. We’ve seen and scouted (Pace) and we feel like we’re pretty evenly matched. It’s going to come down to who makes the least amount of mis
takes. We’ve played a lot of big tournaments (this season) just to get ready for these big games (in the playoffs), so this (next) one just needs to be another game for the girls.”
Goodwin said that, more than anything, Pace will provide a huge mental challenge for the team.
“You look at them and you see that they won three straight (Class AAA) state championships, so it’s a mental game for us,” she added. “Not that we have to play better, but we have to mentally play (well) and not let who they are get in front of what we do.”
Gordon Lee sweeps Toombs County
Last Wednesday, the heavily-favored Lady Trojans controlled the action start to finish and barely broke a sweat as they took down the visiting Lady Bulldogs from Lyons, 25-4, 25-12 and 25-8, in the quarterfinals of the state tournament.
Gordon Lee scored the first seven points of the match and led 15-2 in the first set before Toombs County finally got a point that wasn’t the result of a Gordon Lee mistake.
But those points would be
few and far between as the home team put on a clinic, frustrating their opponents by finding any and every available open spot on the court to drop shots with both power and finesse.
The Lady Bulldogs, the runner-up out of Area 3, took an early 3-2 lead in the second set, but the Lady Trojans would counter with a 9-2 run, forcing Toombs to call time-out, down 11-5. The quick break, however, did nothing to slow down the Navy-and-white, who went on a 10-2 run coming out of the time-out before coasting to the victory.
Then in the final set, Rob
erts stepped to the service line and reeled off 18 consecutive points to put an exclamation point on Gordon Lee’s third straight Elite Eight victory.
Roberts finished with six aces to go with eight digs and four assists in the match. Hudson had 12 kills and five digs. Gracie Thomas finished with three kills and five blocks and Cramer had three kills and six assists. Rogers finished with four kills, five blocks and eight assists, while Annie McDaniel helped anchor the back row with eight digs.