Clayton News Daily

Softball

By Doug Gorman

dgorman@news-daily.com

There has been a changing of the guard among Class A softball teams here in the Southern Crescent.

For the first time in nearly five years, four-time defending Class A champion Eagle's Landing Chrisitan Academy has dropped out of the gasports.com Class A coaches' poll.

While ELCA has fallen on hard-times, slipping to 5-6 overall and 0-2 in Region 9-A, Strong Rock Chrisitan, a newcomer to the Georgia High School Association, has exploded on the sofball scene with its first ever appeaarence in the Class A Top-10 poll.

The Lady Patriots are 9-5 overall and 1-1 in Region 9-A play. Their early-season success includes five shutouts, including an 8-0 win against ELCA.

Back-and-fourth: The Union Grove Lady Wolverines and Jones County Lady Greyhouds have played a little bit of ping-pong this year when it comes to the top spot in the Class AAAA gasports.com coaches' poll. Both teams have taken turns owning the top spot.

Jones County owned the No.1-ranking at the start of the season, Union Grove stole it from them, but the Lady Greyhounds grabbed it back when they beat Union Grove in a match up between the two top teams earlier this season.

Now, Union Grove is back ranked in the No.-2 spot with a 9-2 record. The Lady Wolverines are paced by sophomore pitcher Megan Betsa, who led ELCA to its state title last year.

Ola ranked eighth: The Ola Lady Mustangs have started the season with an 8-3 record and a No. 8-ranking. The squad has won three out of its last four games and is 4-2 in Region 3A-AAAA.

Other teams to keep an eye on: The Luella Lady Lions are 6-4 this season and 2-0 in Region 2-AAAAA.

Luella has won three games in a row. It faces 11-2 Newnan on Thursday at home.

Volleyball

No. 9-ranked Ola rolls on volleyball court

The Ola Lady Mustangs enter the week ranked nkith in the Class AAAA volleyball poll. Ola won six games in a row in one stretch of the season before dropping a contest to McIntosh.

Tuesday night the Lady Mustangs dominated with a sweep of Mundy's Mill and Dutchtown.

Ola beat Mundy's Mill 25-16 and 25-15 before playing three sets against Dutchtown before winning 21-25, 25-11 and 25-10.

Against Mundy's Mill, Lauren Stojanowski finished with seven kills. Kira Graziani and Olivia Botts added three digs and Kayla Hanekamp and Andrea Quintanilla each had four aces.

Against Dutchtown, Graziani and Botts led the team in digs. Hanekamp finished the match with eight aces and Stojanowski seven aces.

ELCA ranked fifth in Class AA/A poll

After being ranked as high as third in the gasports.com Class AA/A volleyball poll, the Lady Chargers came into this week ranked fifth in the weekly poll.