Missiles shoot down AFC

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POLO – The Ashton-Franklin Center Raiders never knew what hit them. The Milledgeville volleyball team made sure it kept up the pressure.

Milledgeville racked up points early and often in Game 1, then battled back and pulled out some big points down the stretch in Game 2 of a 25-12, 25-21 victory in Thursday’s semifinal at the Class 1A Polo Regional.

“It was like we had hardly started, and we’re so far down,” AFC senior Ashley Hahn said. “We’re looking at the scoreboard thinking, ‘What happened?’ We just couldn’t get back from that bad start.”

While AFC (28-8) sat and waited after its quarterfinal win over Pearl City, the Missiles (21-12-3) routed Polo in their first match of the day. Milledgeville carried that over into the first game of the semifinals, racing to a 16-4 lead.

“That was ridiculous,” Milledgeville’s Beckie Whitmarsh said. “AFC is such a good team and we knew it was going to be a tough game, but we just came out with so much energy and just kept pushing.”

The only thing that slowed the Missiles in the opener was a lengthy delay where the officials determined whether or not they had used a legal rotation. AFC scored five of the next eight points, but a Raider service error and a Whitmarsh kill ended things.

The Raiders tried to carry their momentum to Game 2, and led 12-7 before Milledgeville called timeout.

“We wanted to make them work for those final points in the first game, then come out strong and get back in it in Game 2,” Hahn said. “It worked for a while, but then Milledgeville started taking advantage of every opportunity we gave them.”

Back-to-back aces by Taylor Kent tied the score at 13, then a Whitmarsh kill tied the score at 18. Kent’s kill and Alexis DawTyne’s ace made it 21-19 Milledgeville, forcing AFC’s final timeout, then another Whitmarsh kill and a Raider hitting error put the Missiles up by four.

“We never let ourselves feel like we were playing with the lead,” Kent said. “When we got behind [in the second game], we all talked about how bad we really wanted to win this match. We calmed down, got refocused and got our heads back into the game.”

Consecutive hitting errors brought AFC to within 23-21, but kills by Whitmarsh and Kent closed the match.

“Our mistakes really cost us tonight,” Hahn said. “Give all credit to Milledgeville, because they found what was working and stuck with it.”

“We just tried to hit the open spots,” Kent said. “We got everything working together tonight, really got into the flow and tried not to let up once we got going.”

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