Patriots capture area title in exciting match

The Homewood High School volleyball team was not content with simply securing a berth in the Class 6A Super Regionals.

The Patriots went ahead and finished the job, knocking off Ramsay in five sets to win the Class 6A, Area 5 tournament on Oct. 18 at Ramsay High School.

“I’m just so excited for this team,” said head coach Carol Chesnutt. “They steadily worked hard to improve and improve and improve every week and I’m just so excited for them. It’s great.”

To call it a five-set thriller would sound cliché, but that’s exactly what the championship match was. Each team put forth its best shot, and the Patriots were able to muster up enough to pull off the win.

The first set was all Homewood, as the Patriots turned an 8-8 set into a blowout. They won 17 of the final 20 points in the set, including nine in a row at one point, to take it 25-11.

Ramsay was not deterred, though, winning the second set 25-18 and the third 25-22.

The fourth set was a back-and-forth slugfest, with the rallies intensifying and the celebrations becoming more emphatic with every point. Homewood was able to gain just enough separation towards the end of the set to take it, 25-22.

With the momentum from the fourth set, the Rams were unable to stop the snowball of emotion in the fifth set. Homewood executed when it had to, winning 15-12 to take the set, match, and championship.

Kalia Cunningham had a whopping 53 assists in the Ramsay match alone. Venice Sanders led the way with 19 kills and seven blocks, while Tori Webb registered 16 kills.

Kassidy Crawford finished with seven digs and Lia Roberson had five blocks.

The Patriots were set to move on to the Super Regionals and hopefully a shot at the state tournament at the end of October. Visit thehomewoodstar.com for coverage of those games.