GAINESVILLE — The Gainesville girls volleyball team won its first Region 6-7A match of the season rallying from two sets down to beat South Forsyth in a best-of-five matchup.
The Lady Red Elephants lost two close sets to open the match, 25-22 and 26-24, but stormed from behind to win the final three 25-14, 25-22, and 15-8 at the Gainesville gym.
Isabella Garrish and Jay Maldonado both had huge matches to lead Gainesville (15-11, 1-1 Region 6-7A). Garrish had 22 assists, 22 digs, 2 aces, 6 kills, and a block while Maldonado poured in 22 kills, 22 digs, 2 assists, and an ace.
Kerrigan Gruhn added 14 kills, 17 digs, and 2 aces, Makezny Butler chipped in with 3 kills, 2 digs, and a block, and Avery Lindsey had 18 assists, 4 digs, and an ace. Margaret Embry added 20 digs and 3 assists, Hannah Stewart had 4 kills, 2 blocks, and a dig, and Natalie Brown added a kill, a block, and dig for the Lady Red Elephants.
Callie Patterson had 2 kills, a block, and a dig, Savannah Brock had 3 digs, and Abbey Council had three digs and 5 aces, including on match point.
Gainesville next will travel to Athens on Tuesday for a tri-match with Athens Academy and George Walton.
LADY BEARS DOMINATE IN MT. AIRY
Cherokee Bluff swept Banks County and Rabun County and held off Habersham Central in three sets to sweep a quad-match in Mt. Airy.
Bluff opened with a three-set win over the host Lady Raiders 25-23, 23-25, 15-8 win and then spiked Banks County 25-16 and 25-11. The Lady Bears closed out the day with a 25-7, 25-15 win over Rabun County.
GB Cornett had 16 assists, 7 aces, 6 kills, 6 digs and 2 blocks to lead Cherokee Bluff. Sage Sutulovich had 23 kills, 4 digs, 3 aces, and 2 blocks, Madelyn Levine had 23 assists, 6 digs and 3 aces, and Emma Staples had 16 kills, 10 aces and 8 digs for the Lady Bears.
Abbi Hutchins had 20 digs and 9 aces, Olivia Owens had 7 blocks, 3 kills and 3 digs, Sierra Piland had 9 blocks and 2 kills, and Brandyn Peterson had 5 Blocks and 1 kill for Cherokee Bluff.
CHESTATEE SWEEPS QUAD-MATCH AT LANIER
The Lady War Eagles rallied past Centennial 19-25, 25-21, and 15-11 to get things started and held off Duluth 25-19 and 25-20. They finished with a tight three-set win over the host Lady Longhorns 25-15, 17-25, and 16-14.
A pair of freshmen paced the Chestatee attack. Valiree Schmus had 25 kills, 24 digs, and 4 aces while Kadence Wolfe had 23 kills, 5 digs, and 3 aces for the Lady War Eagles.
Senior Arianna Hernandez added 28 digs and 1 ace and sophomore Abby Allgood had 8 aces. Senior Riley Allison contributed with 8 kills and 6 digs
Allgood and fellow setter Emily Graham paced the offense with 29 assists combined.
