The Sandy Creek Lady Patriot volleyball team, who started their season ranked first in the state, have had to pull together as a team after a less than perfect start to their season. Following several disappointing losses to 2007 powerhouse state champion and runner-up teams earlier this month, the Patriots dug down deep and used their years of experience to pull out a perfect showing at their second major tournament of the season.

With a starting lineup that boasts more experience than many college teams, the Patriots played their way back to the win column in a playdate hosted by Armstrong Atlantic Sate University in Savannah this past weekend. The team’s four returning seniors, setter Cheri Smith, libero Mallie Haumann, and outside hitters Katie Davenport and Jennifer Dunn, led the team to a perfect 5-0 record at tournament end. As if four returning seniors (each with four complete junior Olympic seasons under their collective kneepads) isn’t enough, the remaining lineup consists of seven underclassmen, all of whom have serious junior Olympic experience as well.

“There is a tremendous amount of talent and experience on this team,” said head coach Paul Collins, “and each athlete contributed to the success of the team this past weekend. They played together as a team and demonstrated what they can do when they work together.”

The team stats speak for themselves. The offensive attack was led by setter Smith who finished with 68 assists, and junior setter Estefania Diaz who totaled 46 assists. The senior hitters were firing away at will and with impressive accuracy. Contributing more than half of the total number of kills for the day were senior outside hitters Davenport and Dunn who each contributed an impressive 34 kills each, averaging more than 6.5 kills per game each. Junior middle hitter Chanelle Walker posted 28 kills and Smith, swinging away at right side, finished with 19 kills. Freshman middle hitter Kalah Jones posted seven kills, Diaz had two, Haumann had one and junior right side hitter Maribeth Farr had one as well.

The team posted impressive numbers in serving as well with quite a few aces. Walker led the team in aces with nine, Dunn had six, Davenport five, Smith, Diaz and Haumann had four each and freshman Samantha Bryan had one.

The team is strong defensively with Haumann leading the back row as arguably one of the best liberos in the state. She finished the day with 48 digs. Dunn posted 30 and Smith had 24. Davenport finished with 15. The team’s underclassmen rocked the front row with blocks: Jones finished with three blocks, Walker scored 2.5 blocks, while Davenport and Farr each had two. Dunn finished out the list with one block.

The team host Landmark and Fayette County High at home tonight and will travel to Starr’s Mill next Tuesday to face area rivals Whitewater and Starr’s Mill.

“Our season is only going to get more and more interesting,” said Dunn. “We stumbled a bit at the start, but are learning to play together as a team. We have a lot of new players on this team for the first time and we are only going to get better. It’s exciting for all of us and we are looking forward to each game and taking absolutely nothing for granted.”

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