By Donald Heath
Special for the Effingham Herald
GUYTON – A cloud of disappointment hovered over the start of South Effingham’s volleyball season.
The Mustangs placed second in the region last season and advanced to the Elite Eight at state. With a lot of the key contributors returning, the Mustangs conjured thoughts of a deeper run.
Instead, they lost eight of their first 11 matches.
Thursday, South returned to 2023 form and took care of subregion business by knocking off Brunswick 2-0 (25-11, 25-15) and Statesboro 2-0 (25-19, 25-20) to take some momentum into the upcoming week with a rematch against Glynn Academy looming large.
“We did play some tough teams and that’s the plan, to test yourself, but at the same time you want to win some of them,” Mustangs coach Haywood Ellison said. “There were some matches we should have won. The girls have been down about their record.”
Thursday’s wins should perk them up. Brunswick, much-improved compared to past years, entered with a 9-4 overall record and Statesboro was 8-3.
South, with a much more challenging schedule, raised its record to 7-10.
Ellison said his goal remains to find the right six. Two weeks ago, he brought up defensive specialist Jada Hill from the JV team to tighten the backline.
He worked sophomore Leah Magana into the lineup at setter which allowed Riley Stringer to play all-around. Against Brunswick, Stringer had a team-leading six kills. Middle Clara Vorel had five kills.
In the second match, Statesboro jumped out to a 10-7 lead, but Stringer highlighted her four-point service run with back-to-back aces as the Mustangs surged to a 19-13 lead.
The second set had nine ties through the first 13 points before Stringer, her sister Morgan Stringer and Anna Kate Taylor had two kills apiece down the stretch.
“We’ve been good in spurts and bad in spurts,” Ellison said. “We knew the middle of the schedule eased up a bit, but you can’t take a night off. We’re trying to find consistency. We don’t want to be consistently bad. We want good consistency.”
South has a busy week ahead with a seven-match slate. In subregion play, the Mustangs will meet Brunswick and subregion-leading Glynn Academy in Brunswick on Sept. 10 before coming home to host Bradwell Institute and Hilton Head Prep on Thursday (Sept.12).
