Gordon Lee focused on final steps

For the past several seasons, the Gordon Lee Lady Trojans have continued a journey toward the ultimate prize in GHSA volleyball.

In 2020, Gordon Lee made it to the doorstep of a state championship and faced Atlanta-area private school Pace Academy in the Class AA/A Public School finals.

The Lady Knights, who had dropped down in classification after winning three straight Class AAA state titles, took the first two sets before Gordon Lee stormed back to win the next two. The match would go to a fifth-set tiebreaker before Pace was finally able to get the victory.

Now, a extremely talented senior class are getting set for one final shot at making history in Chickamauga.

“We’ve got a veteran team and we’re ready to get them all back out here,” said new head coach Kelli Payne, a Gordon Lee alum who was named head coach after former head coach Adam Crowley took an assistant principal’s job at LaFayette Middle School late in the summer. “I know they’ve been traveling all summer, kind of trying to find out where they want to go to college, but we are ready to get them back out here playing and and playing well together.

“And I’m excited. I love being part of a team and competing.”

The most decorated of Gordon Lee’s successful seniors is Brooklyn Hudson, a twotime winner of the Region Player of the Year award and the 2020 Karissa Tatum Walker County Co-Player of the Year. Hudson had 478 kills, 365 digs, 80 aces and 71 blocks to earn All-State first team honors for a second consecutive year.

First team All-Region and first team AllState honors went to the versatile M.K. Roberts. Roberts had 458 assists and 389 digs last year to go with 103 kills, 71 aces

and 35 blocks. She will move to the libero position in her final season.

Sam Cramer, a setter and middle blocker, had a breakout junior year with 229 assists and 157 kills, while picking up 130 digs, 61 aces and 80 blocks. She was also a first team All-Region selection and earned and an honorable mention All-State nod.

Emoree Rogers (262 assists, 159 digs, 133 kills, 37 aces, 36 blocks) will set and play on the right side, while outside hitter Arilyn Lee (254 kills, 177 digs, 53 aces, 55 blocks) will give the Lady Trojans another front row hammer. The class is rounded out with Alex Finch (38 digs, 39 serve receptions), a defensive specialist who will help shore up the back row in final year with the Navy-and-White.

“It’s just a great group,” Payne added. “They have big shoes to fill from past (senior) groups, but with so many of them having played at the varsity level for so long, I just hope they’re able to step up, show the younger ones and push them to be better, which will help the whole team to be better.”

Right side hitter Riley Shirley, setter Kaylee Ellis and defensive specialist Macy Haney will round out the junior class, while three sophomores, middle hitters Reagan Yancey and Kaitlyn Johnson, and outside hitter Madolynn Loyd, complete the roster.

“I think our strength this year is just really going to be the fact that we’ve played together for so long,” said longtime assistant coach Tricia Goodwin, who will also be joined on the bench by another veteran assistant in Katie Roden and newcomer Emilee Chandler. “These girls have played in the offseason together on their club teams, so they have a lot of synergy that maybe other teams don’t have.

“They’ve also been in that situation where they’re still hurting a little bit from last year and I think that that piece of it is what’s going to make them rise to the occasion this year because they want it so badly. The key is just keeping everyone healthy.”

Gordon Lee will certainly be battle-tested prior to the postseason.

Goodwin said before Crowley took the job in LaFayette, that they put in a lot of effort in the offseason to come up with a schedule that would prepare the team mentally to make another run at state.

“We thought about what this team needed to be ready for the state finals and what we needed was to play even more competitive ball,” she explained. “We put a lot of emphasis (this season) on playing tournaments where we can play higher-level teams than what we normally have played in order to get us more prepared.”

One of those tournaments will be the season opener at Marist this Saturday when Gordon Lee will get another shot at Pace Academy as the field is only open to schools that advanced to state championship matches last year.

While Gordon Lee will have some players seeing major varsity playing time for the first time in their careers, the coaching staff is confident that all the pieces will fit together to create another outstanding team.

“This core group has been together since they were freshmen,” Payne added. “They know how to work and it’s not going to take them long to get to where they need to be. We keep making it a little bit further each year, so hopefully this year will be that grand finale and that’s the goal.

“They’re ready. They’re ready to work hard and hopefully be state champions this year because they know how close they are.”