Mission accomplished: Lady Panthers rally for 6-4A volleyball crown
Although they wouldn’t talk about it publicly, the seniorheavy Ridgeland Lady Panthers began the year with one specific goal in mind - an Area 6-4A championship.
It may have been something of a secret back in early August, but it’s not a secret anymore.
The No. 8-ranked Lady Panthers, who won at rival LaFayette in the opening round this past Thursday, fell to topseeded Heritage back at LaFayette High School on Saturday morning before reeling off four elimination-match wins in a row to capture their second area title in the past three seasons.
“We kind of kept it all between us on the team, but the goal was always to win the area,” head coach April Lemonds said. “Now we’ve done that so hopefully getting one and possibly two more home matches (at
state) will be enough motivation to keep going.”
Ridgeland, who went 2-4 in area play this season to earn the No. 5 seed in the seven-team field, defeated No. 4 LaFayette (25-22, 2225, 25-22) on Thursday night and won the right to face top-seeded Heritage in a winners’ bracket semifinal on Saturday morning.
The Lady Generals would outlast Ridgeland, 22-25, 25-23, 25-22, to pick up the win and qualify for state, but the close call gave the Lady Panthers the confidence they would need to make a run.
A 25-19, 25-14 win over seventh-seeded Pickens clinched a spot in the state tournament, but the Lady Panthers weren’t finished, not by a long shot.
They followed up by beating LaFayette, 2521, 25-18, in a rematch and earned a rematch with Heritage in the elimination bracket final. The Generals fell to second-seeded Northwest in the winners’ bracket final - the first loss in area play for Heritage all season long.
The Lady Panthers would take the opening set, 25-18, but fell behind, 12-7, in the second set when senior Taylor Williams went back to serve. Williams and her team would reel off an astounding
15 consecutive points on the seventh-ranked Lady Generals before going on to a 25-19 victory, demoting Heritage to the area’s No. 3 seed and setting up a best-of-five series with the Lady Bruins for the title.
Ridgeland trailed 18-10 in the opening set, but battled back to cut the lead to one at 23-22. Two final Northwest kills would give the Lady Bruins the early 1-0 lead, but the momentum was beginning to turn the way of the ladies from Rossville.
The Lady Panthers saw Northwest stave off three set points in the second set before a final kill by Jamese Miller gave Ridgeland a 28-26 win to tie it up. The Black-and-White continued to roll, leading start-to-finish, in a 25-16, set three win, and appeared to be well on their way to an area crown as they build a 23-14 lead in set four.
Northwest, however, had other ideas as they reeled off an improbable 11-1 run - staving off four match points - to earn a set point of their own at 25-24. But a hit out of bounds would give Ridgeland a point to tie things up at 25 apiece.
And that’s when things really got crazy.
Northwest would have two set points at 26-25 and 27-26, but Ridgeland would use two clutch shots by Area Player of the Year Te’a Owens to fight them off.
Meanwhile, the Lady Panthers had two more match points at 28-27 and 29-28, only to see the Lady Bruins find a way to keep the match alive both times.
Tied at 29-all, Miller came up with a kill to make it 30-29, and following a long rally, Miller would get one final shot to fall as Ridgeland won the set, 31-29, starting a huge oncourt celebration.
“We came in as the fifth seed and I don’t anyone thought we would come out of here today as champions,” Owens said. “We just played our hearts out and never gave up. We’ve struggled all year to finish out matches and today we finally finished. We believed in each other and played as a team.”
“We knew we had to be all in and that it was going to take all six girls on the court, plus the ones on the bench, to be successful,” Lemonds added. “Everyone had a job to do. They knew it and they did it.”
Owens had 105 kills in the five matches on Saturday, including 38 against Northwest in the final, to go with 66 digs, Zady Carden and Haleigh Fogtman had 25 kills each on the afternoon, while Miller added 19 and Tori Elliot picked up 12.
Williams collected 146 assists and 53 digs, while the back row duo of Abbi Witherow (35 digs) and libero Morgen Simmons (87 digs, 10 aces) led the Lady
Panthers’ defensive charge. Shanna Burk and Jesse Owens had 10 digs apiece.
“Well, it never hurts to have a player like Te’a,” Lemonds added, “but all the girls were responsible for today. Even those girls on the bench. They had a great attitude and kept everyone up. We had tough matches with LFO and Gordon Lee this past Monday, then a really tough match with LaFayette on Thursday and I really think that helped pull us all together.
“I knew we were on the upswing. Did I think we could do what we did today? I wasn’t sure, but the kids just bought in.”
Not only did Ridgeland earn the area championship trophy, they also earned one - and possibly two - more home playoff matches in the first two rounds of the Class 4A state tournament.
The Lady Panthers (27-10) will host CarverColumbus, the No. 4 seed from Area 1, this Thursday. A win would earn them a second round home match against either Troup or the No. 2 seed from Area 3. The Area 3 runner-up was unknown as of press time.
“It feels great because we thought we were finished playing at home,” Owens added. “Now we get to go back and get our home crowd behind us and supporting us. It’s nice to have that home court advantage.”