Volleyball rolls over Rams

Photo courtesy of athletesfeatesphotography.com Lauren Alverson spikes the ball in GBHS’ win over Panama City Rutherford in the Region 1-4A Quarterfinals Nov. 4. The Lady Dolphin volleyball team wasted little time in dispatching the Panama City Rutherford Lady Rams 25-14, 25-6, 25-9 in the Regional 1-4A Quarterfinals Nov. 4 in Gulf Breeze. GBHS used a balanced attack to advance to their first regional semifinal in five years.

GBHS faced Wakulla Tuesday in the regional semifinals. Wakulla has eliminated GBHS three of the last four years.

Gulf Breeze got off to a slow start in game one, with several hitting and serving errors. With a lead of only three midway through the opening game, the Lady Dolphins needed a 12-4 run to end the game.

Caitlin Chapman scored three straight points on serve to make the lead six at 16-10. Jasmine Crowell, who had a team-high eight kills, had two kills in the run, sandwiched in between one of Cheyenne Chapman’s seven kills.

Photo courtesy of athletesfeatsphotography.com Sarah Lewis (2) and Sallie Papajohn block against Rutherford. Crowell and Chapman were two of five GBHS players with at least five kills. “That’s as good a spread attack as we've had all season. It means you can’t focus your defense on one person,” coach Waynn Sellers said.

Another Crowell kill forced a sideout to open game two. Lauren Alverson, who had five kills and a team-high 13 digs, scored seven straight points to blow the game open.

Tristan Powers, who had 37 assists, scored seven more points on serve to make it 20-3. Kylie Conner had three kills in the run. Powers now has 715 assists on the season.

Rutherford (11-13) took a 6-4 lead, only for Gulf Breeze to score 21 of the game’s last 24 points.

Sarah Lewis, who had seven kills and eight digs, scored six straight points to give GBHS the lead for good.

Photo courtesy of athletesfeatesphotography.com Tristan Powers and Caitlin Chapman look on as Cheyenne Chapman spikes the ball last week against Rutherford. Sallie Papajohn added six kills, while Alison Milam had five digs.

Because of the threat of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Ida, GBHS’ regional semifinal with Wakulla could be pushed back to tonight at 7 p m.

AFTER THE FACT

The Region 1-4A semifinal between GBHS

and Wakulla was played

after the News went to press. Check www.gulfbreezenews. com for updates