By Michael Lindsay
The Upperman Lady Bees are region volleyball champions for the second time in school history as they defeated Central Magnet in Tuesday’s championship game, 3-1.
“From the beginning of the season, we were second guessing ourselves on what type of team we could be,” said Upperman head coach Barbie Cook. “I told them we were going to start a journey and we needed to do this together. We’ve come further this season than we ever imagined we would.”
Upperman had to win two games Tuesday as they swept Community in the region semifinals at 5 p.m. before defeating Central Magnet in the region championship immediately following.
“It’s hard to play back to back, but they did it,” Cook said. “We needed to come out here and play our best game. This was something we wanted.”
Tuesday’s Region 4AA volleyball tournament opened with Central Magnet defeating Stone Memorial, 3-1, in the first semifinal of the evening.
Stone Memorial won the first set 25-21 before falling in the next three 25-14, 25-13 and 15-19 to finish their season in the region semifinals.
Upperman took care of business early in their semifinal matchup as the Lady Bees swept Community 25-7, 25-19 and 25-12.
“It’s about mentality and focus; it’s not about individualism,” Cook said. “They come together as a team and that’s formed that unity to help us get to this.”
Upperman jumped out to a commanding 16-1 lead in the first set as they cruised to a 25-7 victory.
The Lady Bees and Community battled back and forth early in the second set before the Bees took a 15-6 lead. Community closed the gap to 19-16 before Upperman closed on a 6-0 run to win the second set 25-19 via a Lila Cade kill.
The Lady Bees controlled the third set en route to a 25-14 win on a Kailyn Stevens ace, setting up their championship showdown against Central Magnet.
Upperman and Central Magnet were tied at 21 in the first set until points from Cade and Kaitlyn Foster gave the Lady Bees a 24-21 lead.
Cade closed the first set with a kill to give Upperman a 1-0 advantage over the Lady Tigers.
The teams were tied at 7 points each early in the second period until Upperman slowly pulled away. A Meiah Moss kill to give Upperman a 15-12 lead sparked a Lady Bee run as they closed the set strong to win 25-16 and take a 2-0 set lead.
Central Magnet didn’t go away quietly as the Lady Tigers took a narrow lead early in the third set as they held on to win it 25-20.
Upperman held a 15-11 lead in the fourth set before Central Magnet stormed back to take a 21-18 lead. The Lady Bees weren’t phased as they battled back to tie the contest at 22.
The teams traded points until Upperman took a narrow 25-24 lead, setting up a serve attempt for junior libero Korra Bass, who sent it over the net for an ace to secure the 26-24 set win an region championship victory for Upperman, 3-1.
The victory is Upperman’s first region championship since 2019 and second in school history.
Despite the postseason success, the Lady Bees had challenges to overcome as they were 8-7 overall to start the season and were the #3 seed entering the District 7AA tournament.
Upperman has been dominant in postseason play however, as they were 10-2 in their final 12 regular season games and have won four postseason games by a combined 12 sets to 2 including two sweeps.
“We did see it; we all knew,” Cook said on her team’s potential. “Once we worked on regrouping and went with a different rotation, that was a game-changer. That’s been carrying us.”
Upperman will host a Class 2A sectional contest against Region 3-2A runner-up Soddy Daisy on Thursday, time TBD.
