By Kailee Dick
The Stone Memorial Lady Panthers took down District 8AA volleyball opponent Upperman in a thriller Thursday night in, 3-2.
“It has been a while since we won here at Upperman,” said Head Coach Tori Permenter. “Barbie is a great coach and that is a great squad. Coming into this game we watched Upperman and Livingston play Tuesday and we thought Upperman did not have their best game. We were expecting them to play their best night, and they sure did. They gave us everything they had.”
Stone Memorial took the first set 25-21 before Upperman tied it up in the second set, 28-26, making the score 1-1.
The Lady Panthers proceeded to win the third set, 26-24, to take a 2-1 advantage.
With the game on the line, Upperman responded as they took down Stone in the fourth set, 25-11, to tie the game again 2-2, forcing a winner-take-all fifth set.
Stone Memorial withstood the lopsided fourth-set score and won the last set, 15-10, to win the match 3-2.
“Man, did my girls stick through,” Permenter said. “Coming off of a fourth set where you just get slaughtered 25-11, and then came back and won 15-11. That is huge.
“Everybody did their part; it takes a team like we have and every girl doing her job to beat a team like Upperman, who is good, but we are good too. We wanted to come in here and show up and show out. Our defense played incredible and our hitters came in at the last second with some big blocks and some big hits.”
Road victories at Upperman are few and far between.
“Our parents travel well,” said Permenter. “I love our fans and we are a volleyball family. It doesn’t matter if it is a JV parent, a freshman parent or a varsity parent, we are all cheering each other on every second. This is the program I have always dreamt of, is that family type and having each other’s back no matter what.”
Both teams will be in action in non-district play next as Stone Memorial hosts Meigs County at 5 p.m. on Monday night. Upperman will participate in White County’s Play Day on Saturday.
