Three county teams vie for regional playoff bids

Three of Columbia County's volleyball teams will hit the road this weekend for the Region 3-AAAA Tournament.

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Greenbrier, Lakeside and Evans will make the trip to Glynn Academy in Brunswick, Ga., for two days of volleyball that will determine the four state playoff seeds in the region.

The one-way, 200-mile trip will be the longest of the season for all three local teams.

"That's why we set up our schedule like that," Greenbrier volleyball coach Debbie Born said. "We've only played at home five days this year."

The Lady Wolfpack have been road warriors this season and hold valuable experience from several out-of-town tournaments.

Greenbrier also picked up a road win closer to home last week that ensured the Lady Wolfpack of a top seed in the region tournament.

Greenbrier traveled to Evans and swept the Lady Knights 2-0 to finish the regular season undefeated in region play.

The victory gave Greenbrier plenty of momentum heading into a region tournament that saw Evans win it all last year.

"We expect to win it. That's been our goal all along," Born said. "We want to still be playing in November, and we need a region championship to do that."

Lakeside will travel to the region tournament as the No. 2 seed from the subregion. The Lady Panthers made the trip to Brunswick for a weekend tournament earlier this year but came back with a loss to Region 3A-AAAA No. 1 seed Glynn Academy.

"We lost to them, but we're a much more developed team," Lakeside volleyball coach Danielle Gonzalez said. "We're a better team now than when we played them back then."

The top four teams from the Region 3-AAAA Tournament will move on to the Class AAAA state tournament held at four different sites throughout the state on Oct. 27.