By Donald Heath
Special for the Effingham Herald
South Effingham volleyball coach Heywood Ellison said conditioning and momentum fueled his Mustangs to a second-place finish at the Region 2-6A Volleyball Championships at Grovetown High on Oct. 14.
South (23-16) played six matches in the double-elimination tournament and won four, including key victories over Effingham County and Glynn Academy, to advance as a host for a first-round state tournament match against Morrow on Oct. 17.
ECHS (25-14) finished fourth in the region tournament and traveled to College Park to play Region 3 champion Woodward Academy.
The second round of State is scheduled for Saturday.
"We've been conditioning all year. That's a factor in a one-day tournament like (the region tournament)," Ellison said. "We played Glynn Academy right after they lost a tough match to Lakeside. We had just beaten Effingham County so we had momentum on our side."
The Mustangs won a third-set tiebreaker 15-10 to beat the Rebels in their third match this season. ECHS won the first time in a non-region affair, but South won the regular-season region meeting.
SEHS' 2-0 victory over Glynn in the tournament came after the Mustangs lost three straight to the Red Terrors.
But Ellison said his team had confidence that the fourth time would be a charm.
"We had been playing them close (Glynn won the second and third sets to beat the Mustangs earlier in the day), so we knew we could beat that team," Ellison said.
Glynn came into the tournament as a No. 2 seed, South was third.
Top-seeded Lakeside-Evans, considered a big favorite after going undefeated in region play during the regular season, defeated South 3-0 for the championship. Lakeside (39-3) is ranked fourth in Class 6A by Score-Atlanta.
CROSS COUNTRY
McDonald wins on region course
BRUNSWICK – South Effingham's Lily McDonald posted a time of 21:46.95 to win the girls' portion of the Run the Plank 5-kilometer cross country race at the College of Coastal Georgia on Oct. 12.
Mustang Julian Howard placed second in the boys’ race and Effingham County had third-place finishes from Theron Claridge and Chloe Adkins in the boys and girls races respectively.
Run the Plank is a key race because it's run on the same course as the upcoming Region 2-6A Cross Country Championships, which will be held on Oct. 26.
McDonald was a winner for the first time when she set a personal-best time of 19:41.16 at Honey Ridge about three weeks ago.
Howard also won his first race at Honey Ridge.
In boys' team competition at Run the Plank, South was fourth among 15 boys’ teams; Effingham County was seventh.
In girls' team competition, the Mustangs were second in the 12-team field. The Rebels had only four girls and didn't have a complete team.
Scoring team points for the SEHS girls were: Lily McDonald (1st, 21:46.95), Brook Crickard (11th, 23:14.50), Brianna Barber (16th, 23:37.19), Magdeline Morgan (21st, 24:10.57) and Nora Mason (23rd, 24:20.52).
For the SEHS boys: Julian Howard (2nd, 17:58.75), Caiden Mason (13th, 19:18.62), Ben Fluegel (20th, 20:01.42), Nathaniel West (47th, 21:17.24) and Mason Jarvi (63rd, 22:01.83).
For the ECHS girls: Chloe Adkins (3rd, 22:18.11); Presley Krahne (65th, 29:55.16), Winter Knapp (66th, 29:57.30) Elle Forward (30:28.14).
For the ECHS boys: Theron Claridge (3rd, 18:25.58), Jacob Conaway (40th, 20:48.89), Joseph Esco (42nd, 20:50), Ayden Wine (66th, 22:06.45) and Quan'zear Duncan McFarlin (87th, 22:58.98).
