For the first time in program history, the Volley Hounds raised a tournament championship trophy on Saturday.
And it came in their home gym, to boot.
After steamrolling Jasper County and Rutland in a pair of morning matches, Jones County won the Slim Chickens Middle Georgia Volleyball Classic with a 2-1 overall win against ACE.
“I’m very impressed with the girls,” Lady Greyhounds head coach Leah Bodnarchuk said. “They came out ready to play. We knew that ACE was going to be tough, but they took them down.”
The Lady Hounds (11-3), whose valiant rally in the first game of the set fell short in a 27-25 loss, seamlessly picked themselves back up going forward, winning 25-12 as a 12-8 lead was blown wide open on service points by Isabella Bodnarchuk, resulting in a 22-9 lead, putting JCHS in an advantageous position to close things out to force a third game, which the Volley Hounds did.
That set things up for the tournament’s winnertake- all game.
“It was a totally different pace of game than the first two that we played. I think they just had to get their bearings right,” Bodnarchuk said. “I brought them back in the huddle and kind of told them, ‘Come on, guys, we’ve got to get the energy up; we have to get moving and just start covering the tips and getting it over the blocks.’ And they just did it. It just clicked.”
Zakeena Sturgeon got Jones County off to a good start, serving to a 3-1 lead, and Addison Lewis lifted the ball over the net from the front line for an 8-5 advantage.
That early burst continued for the Lady Hounds, who thanks to a span led by serves by Molly Register extended their lead to 11-5, one that grew to 13-6 thanks to well-placed advances of the ball with Bodnarchuk on the serve. And after Sturgeon lifted the ball over the net to take things to match point, libero Olivia Edmonson’s serve was unable to be returned by the Gryphons, setting off a celebration by the Volley Hounds, who walked away from Saturday with the firstplace trophy in hand.
JCHS has now won two games in a row against ACE, going back to last season when they lost two earlier in the year, a show of the Lady Hounds overall growth as a program.
“We never had been able to beat them until last year in that last game of the season, and they were eager to come back and do it again,” Bodnarchuk said.
Jones County does not get much time to sit back and celebrate last weekend’s milestone win. It plays Thursday at FPD, next Tuesday in a tri-match at Mary Persons, Aug. 27 at ACE, with the next home match being Sept. 1 against Upson-Lee and Lake Oconee Academy.
