CALEDONIA — Heartbreak probably would be the one word that came to the minds of the Caledonia High School volleyball team Tuesday night.
Ripley High held off a furious rally by Caledonia to earn a 3-2 victory in the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class I playoffs. Set scores were 28-26, 25-17, 20-25, 21-25, 15-12.
Caledonia (14-9) trailed 13-9 in the third set before embarking on a comeback, led partly by seniors Elisha Collins and Elisabeth Shepherd.
“We kept talking to each other and trying to build each other up as a team,” Shepherd said. “After we did that, things started working in our favor, and that allowed us to get back in the game.”
Caledonia took its first lead of the set, 16-14, and widened the gap, thanks to back-to-back kills from freshman Cheyenne Ruth and a series of blocks by Collins.
After taking the set to stay in the best-of-five set affair, Caledonia took a 12-8 lead in the fourth set.
The Lady Confederates extended the lead on back-to-back kills from Collins and junior Kacy Lovett, which made it 18-9. Even though Ripley got as close as 23-21 late in the fourth set, Caledonia hung on to force a fifth set.
“Our mind-set was to take it one point at a time,” Collins said about the final set. “That’s all it was. Just take it one point at a time and play with heart.”
After Caledonia took a 5-3 advantage, Ripley went on a seven-point scoring run to take a 10-5 lead.
The senior leadership of Collins, Shepherd, and Morgan Smith helped Caledonia cut the deficit to 13-11 before Ripley closed the match.
“We didn’t give up,” Caledonia coach Samantha Brooks said. “We started making some better decisions in the later sets and we started to play more as a team. But it just really came down to some missed opportunities.”
Despite the loss, Caledonia accomplished a lot in the regular season. The Lady Confederates won their division for the fifth year in a row with an 8-0 record.
“This was a special year for me,” Collins said. “It was my last year getting to play with this team, and we wanted to go to the state championship. Even though we didn’t accomplish that, it was still a good season.”
Said Shepherd, “It was sad we didn’t get to win tonight and move on to the next round. However, we worked hard all season, and that’s what got us this far.”
With their win, Ripley advances to face Division 2 champion Senatobia, which swept Tishomingo County on Tuesday night. The winner will play for the North Half State Championship.
“I feel like it was a good matchup,” Brooks said. “I knew coming into this game that this would be all about who showed up and who played to win. We both played to win, but they ended up beating us.
“We’re not going to hang our heads about this one. We made some good plays and we wanted to advance, but that’s just something to set our sights on for next year.”
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