Cartersville volleyball opens area play with two wins; Cass, Woodland drop matches

The Cartersville High School volleyball team took both area matches Tuesday night in Carrollton, defeating Cedartown and host Central-Carroll in straight sets.

The Lady Canes defeated Cedartown 27-25, 25-21 and topped Central 25-18, 25-23. In the opening win over the Bulldogs, Anna Grace Brock finished with 12 kills, 10 digs, and six aces. Lauren Wenzell had 11 digs, nine kills, and three service aces. Halle Matthews added seven kills and Macey Vaughn distributed 29 assists. “I wasn’t thrilled with our energy in the match against Cedartown," said Canes coach Dutch Cothran. “We were flat and need to carry ourselves with more confidence. Halle Matthews deserves a lot of credit in the middle tonight. When we struggled, she picked up the slack.”

In Cartersville’s win over the host Lady Lions, Brock had 14 kills, eight digs, and three aces. Wenzell contributed 11 kills, nine digs, and a pair of aces while Macey Vaughn added 25 assists.

“We weren’t as crisp as I’d like, but played better against Central,” said Cothran. Grace Brock had a big match. She did a great job of finding holes in their defense. Macey Vaughn played well tonight too. She made good decisions and got the ball to the right hitters. That goes a long way when you have a couple of hitters who are hotter than others.” Cartersville (10-8, 2-0 in 5-AAAA) travels to River Ridge Thursday where they will also face Cambridge. Saturday is the Bartow County Tournament at Woodland.

LADY COLONELS DROP AREA MATCHES

The Cass volleyball team lost a pair of Area 7-AAAAA matches Tuesday night at Paulding County.

The Colonels fell 25-20, 25-19 to the host Patriots and also fell 25-14, 25-23 to East Paulding. Cass travels to Rome Thursday where they will face the host Lady Wolves and Northwest Whitfield.

WOODLAND TOPPED IN AREA MATCHES

Woodland volleyball dropped a pair of area matches at home Tuesday night, falling to Villa Rica in three sets and to Kell in straight sets. The Lady Cats won the opening set with Villa Rica 25-21, but lost the final two sets 25-21 and 15-7. “We played hard and overall played really well,” noted Woodland coach David Condon, “we just didn’t execute as well down the stretch as we needed to pull out the win.” Sydney Molinaro finished the opening match with five kills, eight assists, four digs, and a service ace. Caroline Gore totaled nine kills and two aces. Grace Webb contributed four kills, two blocks, and a pair of aces and Lauren Morris added six assists, two aces, and one kill.

The straight set loss to Kell was 25-20 and 25-8. “We played well in the first set, but played flat in that second set,” said Condon. Webb finished with three kills, two assists, two digs, and four blocks. Molinaro totaled three kills, three assists, and one block. Gore had four kills and one ace while Morris added four assists and two digs.

Woodland travels to Cedartown Thursday where they will face the host Bulldogs and Douglas County.