Darlington takes first
Lady Tigers defeat Lady Jackets in Coosa Invitational
Saturday marked a special day for the local volleyball community as teams gathered at Coosa High for the inaugural Coosa Invitational.
It turned to be especially memorable for the Darlington Lady Tigers, who won the event by downing Rockmart in the finals.
The tournament, which featured eight teams, was essentially the first tournament to feature all six of the schools in Floyd County — Armuchee, Coosa, Darlington, Model, Pepperell and Rome — in one event.
The field of eight teams also included Greater Rome representative Rockmart, along with LFO.
The tournament began early Saturday morning and lasted until late in the afternoon, with the Lady Tigers winning an intense three-set affair against Rockmart in the championship.
The Lady Tigers won the first set 25-19 before the Lady Jackets came back and won the second set 25-22. Darlington then came back to win the final set 16-14.
“It feels really good and I’m really proud of them,” said Darlington coach Leah Groat. “Every girl on our team helped us get here today.
“It was a really long day of volleyball, but it was totally worth it,” added Groat with a smile.
The Lady Tigers were once again led by the play and leadership of their veterans, but also had some younger players girls step up.
Two- time All- Area members Bailey Brock and Sammi Harton had fine tournaments, and were pivotal in the championship game.
Anna Kate Dulaney had numerous kills and two crucial serves on the final two points of the final set. Abby Cook and Elizabeth Wilhoite both had some crucial plays down the stretch.
For Brock, winning the tournament has been something she’s been waiting for since she started playing volleyball.
“This is awesome,” said Brock. “I’ve been playing varsity for three years and we’ve never won a tournament, so this feels really good.
“We struggled with communication, but once we came together and talked about it and encouraged each other, we picked it up and won it in the end,” added Bailey. “We played hard all day long, and it didn’t matter how tired we got — we always played as hard as we could.”
For the Lady Jackets, losing the three-set championship was heart breaking, but Rockmart coach Robert Torline was proud of his squad.
“I am excited by the way they played,” said Torline. “We didn’t finish it at the end, but we played excellent today.”
Since the county schools in Floyd County are just in their second year of volleyball since starting or restarting their programs, a tournament like this hasn’t been possible until now. Those programs are growing and improving quickly, which was evident on Saturday.
“This was a great tournament because it had local teams,” said Torline. “It’s good for the girls, the teams in Rome are getting better, and the tournament was just great.”
Darlington went undefeated in pool play in the morning to earn a No. 1 seed and earn a firstround bye. Darlington then beat Coosa in three sets to earn a berth in the championship round.
Rockmart went 2-1 one in pool play, beating Rome in the first round and downing LFO to reach the championship.
Since Coosa was the host school, coach Kate Williamson had a long and busy day of not only coaching her team, but running the tournament as well.
“It was definitely stressful,” said Williamson with a laugh. “(But) it was a lot of fun.”
Here’s how the local schools fared:
COOSA
The Lady Eagles made it to semifinals of the tournament, but lost to eventual champion Darlington in three sets. Coosa won the first set 25- 23, but lost the next two sets 25-26, 15-8.
“We played really well today,” said Williamson. “Everybody that was here is fairly equally matched, so every game was a battle for everybody.
“I’m really proud of the way they fought for in that last game against Darlington,” added Williamson.
Coosa went 2-1 in the pool play and was a No. 2 seed for tournament play, and faced off with cross- town rival Armuchee in the first round.
The Lady Eagles won the first set 25- 7, and then the intensity
LEFT: of the match picked up. Armuchee came back to win the second set 25- 20, but the Lady Eagles bounced back to win the final set 15-7.
“County school rivalries are always going to be a good match,” said Williamson. “Our girls were ready for it and they played disciplined volleyball.”
ARMUCHEE The Lady Indians went 1- 2 in pool play, and entered the tournament as No. 3-seed. They faced Coosa in the first round, and lost in a frustrating three sets.
“We started the match out cold, and then in the final set we just couldn’t serve the ball,” said Armuchee coach Stacy Payne. “The first set was horrible, then I made the same girls stay in there and play the next set and they played tough, dug deep and pulled it out.
“Then we go to the tiebreaker and serves just hurt us,” added Payne.
ROME The Lady Wolves went 1- 2 in pool play, and were a No. 3 seed in the tournament. Rome faced Rockmart in the first round of the tournament, and lost in two sets 25-23 and 25-17.
“I think we had a good start and did well communicating,” said Rome coach Catasha McDaniel. “We lost our focus at times, but overall I thought we did a great job of working together and become more of a team today.”
MODEL AND PEPPERELL The Lady Devils and Lady Dragons failed to advance past pool play after they each posted 0-3 records.
First-year Model coach Kendall Davis got to see the good side of her team, but also the bad.
“We started out a little rough and the girls got a little frustrated,” said Davis. “We played really well in our second match, and then went back in fourth in the final game.
“I liked that we got to play the local teams because we got to see our competition for the rest of the season,” added Davis.