Ringgold volleyball team falls to defending 3A champs

Another outstanding season for the Ringgold Lady Tigers volleyball team came to an end last Tuesday night with a straight-sets loss to powerhouse Pace Academy in the second round of the GHSA Class 3A state tournament. The Knights, a No. 2 seed after losing to rival Westminster in the Region 4 championship match, boasted an extremely tall frontline of three 6-foot-3 players, including Brown University commitment Ada Agolli and University of San Diego commitment

Sasha Ratliff. However, the Blue-and-gold were determined put up a fight...and fight they did.

The first set was tied 7-7 when Pace went on a 7-0 run. Ringgold would answer with four straight points to cut the deficit down to 14-11, but another 7-0 run would give the Knights a stranglehold on the set and they would go on to a 2513 victory.

The second set was tied 8-8 when the visitors from Atlanta once again started to assert themselves. The hitting and blocking of Agolli and Ratliff, along with Lucy Ferry, proved to be too much for the smaller Lady Tigers and another 7-0 run would follow.

Ringgold called a time-out hoping to stem the Knights’ momentum, but Pace came out of the break with another 7-0 run before Sydney Pittman finally got a kill down to end the run. However, the Lady Tigers would only pick up one more point in the set as they fell, 25-10.

The third set saw a motivated Ringgold team jump out to an early 6-3 lead. But Pace would rally to tie things up and the two teams would stay within two points of each other all the way to 13-13 when