Evans has area title in volleyball
Volleyball title is team's first
Evans' 3-0 sweep over Greenbrier in the Area 2-AAAA Volleyball Tournament finals Tuesday secured the first volleyball area championship for the Lady Knights.
As easy as the win looked in the tournament finals, the Lady Knights didn't exactly take the shortest path to the championship match.
The possibility of the first volleyball area title looked almost impossible after top-seeded Evans was beaten by Lakeside in the area tournament's second round on Oct. 14. The loss dropped the Lady Knights into the loser's bracket, while Lakeside and second-seeded Greenbrier battled in the tournament semifinals.
Evans volleyball coach C.C. Armstrong said the setback didn't worry her or her team.
"I thought it was just going to be good practice before we made it to the finals," Armstrong said.
After the second-round loss, Evans breezed through the loser's bracket to reach the tournament semifinals to face Lakeside again. In last year's area tournament, Lakeside eliminated Evans in the tournament semifinals. This year, Evans found revenge with a 2-1 win in its fourth match of the day. Evans senior Aidan Yeager devastated Lakeside with 17 kills in the semifinals match.
"I didn't want what happened last year to happen this year," she said. "We knew everyone would be coming for us pretty hard."
After two days' rest, the Lady Knights returned to the court to face Greenbrier in the Area 2-AAAA Championship. Evans swept the Lady Wolfpack 25-18, 25-18, 25-22 and earned a No. 1 seed heading into the Class AAAA state sectionals next weekend.
"This was the ultimate team effort," Armstrong said. "It's hard to single out any one player because everyone did exactly what we needed them to do."
Evans will advance to the state sectionals along with second-seeded Greenbrier, third-seeded Lakeside and fourth-seeded Glynn Academy.