Volleyball 5A Championship: Pope over Walton
| Courtesy of: | The Greyhound Tracks Newspaper |
By: Jessica Hale
Hundreds of fervent fans filled the stands at Marietta High School on Halloween night to watch long-time rivals Walton and Pope High school contend for the AAAAA Volleyball State Championship. The games witnessed exceptional performances from both teams, and it was only the tie-breaking fifth match that finally determined Pope Greyhounds as the State Champions for 2009.
These two Cobb Country schools each possessed an outstanding volleyball record. The lady greyhounds, for instance, captured the country’s attention this year by breaking into the national rankings.
Starting at 33rd in the nation in the beginning of the season because they had the best starting record in school history (17 wins, 1 loss), the lady greyhounds continued to win match after match and gradually pushed their standings up to 22nd, and at one point reached 11th in the country, before losing their only two matches in to the very Walton Raiders they faced in the State Championships.
As of the last week of the regular high school volleyball season, Pope stood first in Division AAAAA with 52 wins and 2 losses, while Walton ranked a close second with 44 wins and 6 losses.
With this in mind, eager fans bridled with anticipation as these two schools slowly cut the competition out all the way down to the State Finals.
Walton Raiders took the lead in the first match, winning 25-21. The Lady Greyhounds evened the score to 1-1 after winning the second round in 25-22. Pope went on to win the following match against Walton in 26-24, taking the score to 2-1. But the excitement really set in once the Lady Raiders recovered in the fourth round for a 25-22 victory, evening the score to 2-2.
The fifth match gave both fans and players restlessness, as the lead switched from one team to the other. Pope began the match with a 5-1 lead, quickly losing it to Walton, with a score of 10-7 in Walton’s favor. Walton furthered the gap to 11-7 and then up to 13-8. Then in a few extremely emotional last moments, a combined play by the team’s only senior Hannah Farmer and junior captain Mary Hoey brought up the score up to 15-13, giving Pope the State title for the 2009 season.
The victors from other division brackets did not have such a deciding tournament. Their performances include: Whitewater dominated over Marist in three matches with scores of 25-12, 27-25, and 28-26 for the AAAA Championship Title, Woodward similarly defeated Columbus High in three matches of 25-21, 28-26, and 25-15 for the AAA Championship, and Weslyan triumphed over Westminster in a three game set of 25-17, 25-21, and 26-24.
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- Volleyball: Private schools dominate top of polls
- Volleyball: Perfect Pope rises to top of AAAA poll
- Volleyball All-Star Event This Saturday
- Volleyball Coaches Name All-State Awards
- Despite Furious Finish, Pope Misses the Playoffs
This entry was posted on Sunday, November 1st, 2009 at 10:31 pm and is filed under Georgia, Volleyball . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.