The Sonoraville volleyball team honored their seniors on Thursday night, and made it an even better memory by sweeping two non-area opponents.
The Lady Phoenix took down Northwest Whitfield in the first match in two sets (2521, 25-18) before beating Rockmart in the final match of the night in three sets (20-25, 25-20, 25-17).
In between the matches, Sonoraville recognized their three seniors for Senior Night festivities. The three honored were Haley Ponder, Samantha Fitzwater and Heather Ortiz. Ponder has been a part of two straight area titles and two straight trips to the Class AAA Super Six.
Assistant coach Dia Johnson filled in for absent head coach Trace Vaughn, who is recovering from back surgery.
Next up, the Lady Phoenix open the Area 6-AAA Tournament on Thursday at Adairsville as the No. 2 seed with a first-round match against North Murray at 6 p.m. The tournament wraps up on Saturday as the team looks for their third straight area title.
Calhoun opens the tournament as the No. 5 seed against Ringgold on Thursday at 5 p.m.
In other recent prep action:
CROSS COUNTRY Calhoun boys, girls sweep home meet
Calhoun hosted three other teams at New Echota on Thursday and came away with wins in both the boys and girls meets.
On the boys’ side, the Jackets finished with 15 points to take the top overall spot in the team standings. North Murray had 50, and Chattooga and Morris Innovative didn’t record a team score.
The top finisher for the Jackets was Jason Sosa, who took second with a 19:22. Also scoring for Calhoun was Paco Ramirez in third, Eric Garcia in fourth, Ian Bledsoe in fifth and Steven Guerrero in sixth. The meet’s individual winner was Morris Innovative’s Irvin Rendon, who ran an 18:25 for the fastest time at New Echota this season.
In the girls’ race, the Lady Jackets took the team win as none of the other three teams had a complete team score. Cahloun’s Erin Putnam led her team with a second-place finish (24:07).
Rounding out the Lady Jackets’ team score was Unique Sardeneta in third, Emily Driscoll in fourth, Leslie Fagan in fifth and Bianca Sanchez.
North Murray’s Kailee Tipton was the girls’ individual top finisher with a 23:05.
“This is the first time in my memory that the boys and girls duplicated each other’s finish, second through sixth place,” said Calhoun coach Raymond Hobby. “Overall, it was a strong team effort. Both groups competed well against each other and ran in a tight pack as demonstrated by our finishes.”
Calhoun’s next meet is Saturday at the Georgia Highlands Classic in Rome.