VALDOSTA – Despite a home court advantage as the hosts of the Region 1-6A tournament, Valdosta High volleyball didn’t play up to its potential according to head coach Anna McCall.

The Wildcats opened the night with a straight sets loss to Houston County – losing the first set 25-13 and the second 25-19. 

Mason Holtzclaw led the team with four kills. Keona Martin and Isa Kassum each had three kills, with Kassum adding a team-high 12 digs. Alivia Fennell had 13 assists and seven digs and Fiora Shen added seven digs of her own in the loss.

In their second match on center court, they didn’t fare much better against eventual champion Lee County, losing in straight sets 25-20, 25-19.

Kassum and Martin had three kills each, while Kassum added a team-best nine digs. Fennell recorded three aces on serve along with eight assists and seven digs.

In the nightcap, the Wildcats dominated in a two-set win against Northside. Valdosta jumped out to a big lead in the first set and cruised to a 25-8 win. In the second set, the Eagles kept things close as the match was tied 8-all before the Wildcats separated – building a 23-13 lead. Though the Eagles scored four unanswered points to cut the deficit to 23-17, the Wildcats were able to put the set away 25-17.

Fennell had 16 assists and three digs, Shen recorded a team-high 10 digs and Kassum had seven aces and four digs in the win.

“The season has gone well,” McCall said. “Obviously, we’ve had some ups and downs. We had to quarantine for a few days due to COVID early on, but since then, we’ve been climbing. We had good games Tuesday and I feel like today, the girls did not play to their potential. We do have a lot of potential on the team and when you play in a region tournament, when you play teams that are at a high level, everybody has to have a good day.

“It was not our day today, but we ended on a good note beating Northside. We’ll be third in the region and now we’ll just wait to see where we go from here.”