Coming together
- Updated: October 13, 2022
Donoho sweeps Pleasant Valley to win Class 2A Area 10 title, Draper named MVP; Cleburne County sweeps Jacksonville for 4A Area 10 crown; 10 county teams qualify for regionals
THURSDAY’S AREA TOURNAMENTS
CLASS 2A
Area 10 at Donoho
Donoho 3, Ranburne 0 (25-8, 25-8, 25-18)
Pleasant Valley 3, Woodland 0 (25-23, 25-16, 25-18)
Donoho 3, Pleasant Valley 0 (25-17, 25-21, 25-14)
Regional openers: Donoho vs. West End, Pleasant Valley vs. Sand Rock
CLASS 4A
Area 10 at Jacksonville
Jacksonville 3, Anniston 0
Cleburne County 3, White Plains 0
Cleburne County 3, Jacksonville 0
Regional openers: Cleburne County vs. Haleyville, Jacksonville vs. Curry
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
The Donoho volleyball team has been in what first-year coach Anna Taylor called “a little bit of a slump” since the Calhoun County Tournament, but everything seemed to come back together for the Lady Falcons Thursday night at the best time possible.
Playing in Sprouill Gym for the last time this season, the Lady Falcons won a pair of matches and swept their way to the Class 2A Area 10 championship. They beat Ranburne 25-8, 25-8, 25-18 to qualify for next week’s North Regionals in Huntsville and then beat Pleasant Valley 25-17, 25-21, 25-14 to claim their first area title as a Class 2A participant.
“We’re sort of been in a little bit of a slump since County, we’ve had some little spurts, and tonight we played well,” Taylor said. “We played our game. We truly took the things that we’ve been practicing on and played today, so it was a good game for us to build some confidence.
“Having it here at Donoho truly helped us out, helped to get that ball rolling; we had a great little fan section over here that really helped, and that’s exactly what we needed to help launch us into regional play. It’s very much a relief to me to reach step one and I’m ready to start focusing on step two and I’m ready to start talking about regionals now.”
The Lady Falcons (37-13), the reigning Class 1A champions, will now play Area 13 runner-up West End in their 2A regional opener at the Von Braun Center 11:30 a.m. Thursday. Pleasant Valley (30-14), a regional regular in 3A before this most recent realignment, will play Area 13 champion Sand Rock at the same time.
Donoho senior Lily Grace Draper was named tournament MVP for her consistently strong overall play. She had 12 kills in the title match, 22 on the night and now needs 13 to reach 2,000 for her career. Mary Marshall Perry had 15 kills on the night and is three shy of 1,000 for her career.
Both seniors have been part of 197 victories since being called up to the Lady Falcons’ varsity at the end of their seventh-grade seasons.
“We all knew it was going to be our last game (here) going in, but it didn’t really hit us until after the game and everyone got so emotional and it was just a really sweet moment between us all,” Draper said. “That definitely gave us a lot of drive to come and play hard like we did.
“I’m so proud of how everyone played as a team and played together and fought so hard. Everybody had a great game. It was really an honor to be the MVP on such a talented team. We have a lot of great players who played so good tonight.”
Among the elements the Lady Falcons have been working on since their disappointing exit in the Calhoun County Tournament semifinals is moving their feet on defense and that was reflected in their digs in the two matches. Draper had 19 in the title match and 35 on the night, giving her 1,115 for her career. Sarah Waggoner had 23 total digs, Sam Wakefield 16 and Hannah Sprayberry 11 and Ansley Simmons 11 each.
“We definitely adjusted our defense for their offense,” Taylor said. “We had to adjust to be ready for those tips and those line shots. We worked on that a lot in practice. We worked a lot on our footwork in our defensive moves. Ever since county we have struggled to move our feet and we’ve done a lot of foot movement and active drills and it was very evident out there tonight.”
Pleasant Valley may have been denied the area crown, but the Lady Raiders took care of their biggest piece of business earlier in the day when they swept Woodland to earn another trip to the regionals.
They rallied from an sizeable deficit late in the first set to win 25-23, then went on to put away the Lady Bobcats. They stayed close in the first two sets of the final, even grabbing the early lead in Set 2, but they just couldn’t overtake the more experienced Lady Falcons.
Allie Bryant had 24 kills and 27 digs in their two matches. Lily Henry had 16 kills and 30 digs and Maddie Schwabe had 51 assists. They all made the all-tournament team.
“Being the young team that we are I knew what the challenge would be,” PV coach Dana Bryant said. “But they did what they had to do to be able to extend so they get another opportunity. Opportunities did not end today. They battled and opportunity lies out there next week.
“They’re finally learning that volleyball is like a puzzle, it’s almost like a chess match. Today I saw them thinking. Even though their plays didn’t always hit, they were thinking, they were doing what they were doing with purpose. They were trying. I was proud in the way they played. Even though we didn’t quite fire on all cylinders during that final we were still doing things we were needing to be doing. Light bulbs are starting to click.”
Ten of Calhoun County’s 14 volleyball-playing schools made it to regional play, five so far as area champions. Oxford plays for its area title Saturday, but is guaranteed a regional spot as the regular-season winner of a three-team area.
Class 2A Area 10
| DONOHO (37-13) | KIL | AST | ACE | DIG | BLK |
| Lily Grace Draper | 22 | 5 | 35 | ||
| Ansley Simmons | 12 | 11 | |||
| Estella Connell | 17 | 3 | |||
| Ryals Jones | 4 | 2 | |||
| Mary Marshall Perry | 15 | 8 | 10 | ||
| Sam Wakefield | 5 | 62 | 6 | 16 | 1 |
| Sarah Waggoner | 2 | 1 | 23 | ||
| Blair Kitchen | 8 | 3 | |||
| Hannah Sprayberry | 4 | 11 | |||
| Kate Williamon | 3 |
| PLEASANT VALLEY (30-14) | KIL | AST | ACE | DIG | BLK |
| Lily Henry | 16 | 1 | 30 | 5 | |
| Ella Parris | 6 | 11 | 1 | ||
| Allie Bryant | 24 | 6 | 6 | 27 | |
| Maddie Schwabe | 3 | 51 | 1 | 15 | 3 |
| Madison Schwabe | 13 | 1 | 15 | 1 | |
| Ellie Patterson | 6 | 2 | 4 | ||
| Madi Hay | 4 | 17 | |||
| Janette Turner | 3 |
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Most Valuable Player: Lily Grace Draper, Donoho
Donoho: Estella Connell, Sam Wakefield, Mary Marshall Perry
Pleasant Valley: Lily Henry, Allie Bryant, Maddie Schwabe
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