By Dallas Bordon
The Madison County Volleyball Raiders will make school history on
Wednesday when they step onto the floor to face Locust Grove of region 4-AAAA in
the first round of the State Playoffs. The Wildcats hold a record of 21-14 and
8-0 their region. Locust Grove opened the season winning 14 of 18 matches but midway
through the campaign the Wildcats have won just 3 of 12 including three
straight losses; 2 to Union Grove and one to Ola.
Locust Grove defeated Jonesboro 2-0 to
reach the State Tournament. The Wildcats roster has eight seniors, four juniors
and one sophomore.
Madison County advanced by defeating
Lumpkin County 2-0 in the second round of the region tournaments at Monroe Area
last week. The win over Lumpkin County put the Volley Raiders in the State
Tournament for the first time ever. "I'm proud of the effort and competitiveness of our team during the region tournament," said first year coach Steve Crouse. "They stepped up to the challenge on Saturday morning and defeated Lumpkin County in a fantastic game where we played very well together." Madison County put together their best performance to date slightly defeating the Indians 30-28 in the opening set before sweeping the match by winning the second set. The Raiders returned a little payback to the Indians after Lumpkin County defeated Madison twice in the regular season; once on senior night.
"Lumpkin had beaten us twice before," said Crouse. "The last time was on senior night in our gym. It was great to see our girls celebrate on the court after the win which put up in the state tournament." Madison County was bumped from region tournament play after losing to Lanier 0-2. For the seniors, being a group that will go down in school history as the first team to reach state tournament play was plenty of reason to celebrate at the end of the day.
