Charles Prince

The North Jefferson News



The Gardendale Lady Rockets were denied a chance to reach the 5A state championship tournament by the Hartselle Lady Tigers, who took a tough five-game match on Thursday night 25-23, 33-35, 25-20, 15-25 and 15-10.

The Lady Rockets, playing in front of the largest home crowd of the season, played tough after losing the first game and took the marathon second game 35-33 behind the play of their front line.

Kendall Thomas had seven kills, Kristian Moody had three, Rebekah Myers, Beth Erwin, Rachel Brewis and Emily Lawson all had two kills in the game.

Lawson had three aces and a scoring block as the Lady Rockets tied up the match at 1-game each.

Then came a scary moment on the Gardendale sideline. In between games, Lawson had an asthma attack and missed much of the third game.

She later returned, but appeared to be still not feeling well.

The Lady Rockets tied the match at 2-games each by taking the fourth game behind the determined Lawson, who had four kills, two blocks and two more aces.

Erwin had four kills, followed by Thomas and Moody with three each.

In the fifth game, the visiting Lady Tigers took advantage of a Gardendale mis-hit to take a 3-2 lead and never trailed again as they reached the Elite Eight for a second straight season.

Gardendale (26-11) fell for a second consecutive season in sub-state play and missed out on the state tournament.

The Lady Rockets four seniors Lawson, Erwin, Moody and Thomas played their final high school volleyball games.

For the match, Thomas had 25 kills, Moody and Erwin had eight kills each.

Myers and Brewis had three kills each, while Myers had two blocks and Brewis had four.

Lawson had six aces, Thomas had four.

Lawson passed off 40 assists.