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For the third consecutive year, the Tennessee spikers left the court at GPS as the winners, downing Georgia 30-25, 30-15, 21-30 and 30-15.
Ringgold’s Kasi Runion set a new all-star record with 12 kills, two aces and two blocks. The future Shorter College player was named the Georgia Player of the Game. It marked the third straight time that a Ringgold player has won the award, following Kristy Walker in 2005 and Brittany Modrall in 2004.
Runion said their team’s main goal was just to have fun.
“We worked really hard,” she said. “But they just outplayed us.”
Georgia head Coach Annie Blanks of Ringgold said she was proud of her team’s effort.
“We didn’t want to let anyone down,” she said. “And, I don’t think we did. Tennessee is just good.”
She said she was expecting nothing but the best against their opponents. She said the most surprising part of the game was how well her team played.
“We had two weeks to gather a team,” she said. “We had six practices and there was only one where everyone showed up. Tonight, we played like we had been playing together for a while.”
In the opening game, Tennessee led by as many as six points, but Georgia continued to chip away the deficit, cutting the gap to a single point several times.
But costly service and hitting errors eventually caught up to Georgia and allowed Tennessee to claim Game 1.
Tennessee stormed out of the gates in Game 2 with Ooltewah’s Alexis Mathes opening the game with seven straight service points.
Despite playing with just seven players to Tennessee’s roster of 12, the Georgia girls showed signs of life in Game 3.
Led by the hitting of Runion and solid defense by LFO’s Courtney Brown and Southeast Whitfield’s Megan Blevins, Georgia worked the match to a fourth game.
But playing with only one substitute finally took its toll on Georgia in the fourth and final game.
The fatigue was evident in the faces and body language of the Georgia players as Tennessee cruised to an easy win to clinch the match.
Brown had three kills while Blevins and Dalton’s Lauren Sneary had two.
Sneary added three aces and three blocks and led the Georgia squad with eight service points.
“Today they were the better athletes,” Brown said. “But Georgia may win this soon.”
Emily Lawson of Red Bank was the Tennessee Player of the Game. The future Berry College Viking had a nice all-around game with five kills, four aces and seven service points, while playing solid defense.
GPS grad Emily Boydston was named the game’s Most Valuable Player, finishing with 10 kills, three aces and eight service points.
Tennessee now leads the series 3-0.
The Hardee’s All-Star Series will continue on Monday, June 26 with the All-Star Softball Classic at Frost Stadium.
First pitch of the doubleheader is slated for 6 p.m.
The All-Star Baseball Classic will be played on Tuesday,
June 27 at BellSouth Park. The Futures Game will begin at 3 p.m. with the Senior Game to follow at approximately 6 p.m.
The series wraps up for 2006 with the Hardee’s All-Star Soccer Classic on Thursday, June 29 at Hixson High.
The girls’ game kicks off at 5 p.m. with the boys to follow at 7:30
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