Morgan County secured its third state championship in four years with a victory over Ringgold last week in the Class AA title match.
The Spike Dogs defeated the Tigers 3-1 to also claim their second consecutive state championship.
“I was very proud of (the girls) and excited for them,” Morgan County first-year head coach Alan Shultz told the Lake Oconee News. “Like we’ve talked about this season, winning that state championship was a goal of ours, but I didn’t want the girls to be judged on success or failure based simply on whether or not they won that championship. So, it was big for them to achieve what they set out to do. The season certainly would not have been a flop had we lost in the finals, but it definitely feels a lot better being the champions.”
Ringgold gave Morgan County all it had in the state championship match.
The Lady Dogs cruised in the first set, winning 25-13 before pulling out a close 25-23 victory in the second.
Morgan County held an 18-10 lead in the second set, but the Tigers pulled together a rally and trailed 24-23 later on. However, Spike Dog senior outside hitter Natalie Phillips secured the set win with a block on the last point.
“Ringgold played a really good match,” Shultz said. “We came out strong and served really, really well in the first set and got them on their heels a little bit. We beat them pretty handily in that first set, and we jumped off to a pretty good lead in the second set, but they settled in and started chipping away at it. The second set ended up closer than we would have liked. You could see Ringgold was starting to gain some momentum.”
The Tigers forced a fourth set with a dominant effort in the third, winning 25-12. Morgan County then responded in the fourth set, securing the Class AA state championship with a slim 25-22 victory over Ringgold.
Shultz was pleased with how his team responded in the fourth set, despite a strong push from the Tigers.
“They jumped on us pretty good in that third set, and I was just really proud of the way our girls didn’t panic,” Shultz said. “We came out in the fourth set and just got back to doing what we were doing in the first two.”
Morgan County senior Abby Dennard was named the state championship match’s MVP, finishing with a team-high 16 kills. The Spike Dogs finished the season with a 33-12 overall record in Shultz’s first year as head coach.
When the final point was won, Shultz breathed a sigh of “relief.”
“Ringgold played well in the third and fourth sets, and so we didn’t want to go to a fifth set,” Shultz said. “Then it was just a lot of emotion running, but it was very satisfying just getting to watch the girls celebrate.”