Starr's Mill moves on to third round of GHSA 4A state championship tournament
- Daminon Lewis
- 48 minutes ago
- 2 min read
As the Georgia High School Association volleyball state championship tournament continued, the Union Grove Wolverines hosted the Starr's Mill Panthers in the second round of the Class 4A bracket, with the Wolverines entering the match as the number one seed and Starr's Mill the number two seed.
As the match got underway, Union Grove would open set one with an 11-4 run before Starr's Mill responded by outscoring the Wolverines 9-2, tying the game at 13 and closing out the set by outscoring Union Grove 12-9 to win the set 25-22, the same score they would also win set two by after getting off to a 3-0 lead in the period.
In set three, the score would remain close early on, with several lead changes which would eventually go from a 7-7 tie to a 13-10 Starr's Mill lead. However, the Wolverines would not fold, taking a 19-18 lead late in the set, but Starr's Mill responded with 7-2 run to close out the set 25-21, winning the match 3-0.
"They kept pushing," Starr's Mill head coach, Shayne Thompson, said following the Panthers' win over Union Grove, "they were a great opponent," Thompson said of how well the Wolverines played and how much of a challenge Union Grove presented as the Panthers worked for scoring opportunities.
"We'd try to find their open spots, they were a great opponent, so we just kept trying to find those open spots and move the ball around," Thompson said of the Panthers' adjustments through out the match to help them pick up the win on Saturday. With the win, Starr's Mill will move into the quarterfinal round and face Pace Academy.
"We have to make sure we're still moving the ball around, that way when they find our hits and they start blocking us, we can start moving it around until they can't find us again," Thompson said of the focus for the Panthers as they prepare for their quarterfinal matchup with the eight-time defending champions.
