Making History: Varsity Volleyball

Making History

Front Row (L-R): Chesney Tanksley, Rebecca Heyl, Addy McCoy, Sarah Jennings, Kate Gary, Skylyn Yaskiewicz, Manager Susie Sun Back Row (L-R): Assistant Coach Tykia Thompson, Ashlyn Yaskiewicz, Elsa Sanchez, Sofia Rueda, Katarina Foskey, Julianne Shirley, Claire Kelly, Chloe Kahwach, Kitty Rodenas, Manager Chi Chi Nwachukwu, Head Coach Matt Heyl, Assistant Coach Jo Kimbrel

Eighteen inches — the distance between the heart and mind. A true champion knows in order to reach the pinnacle, one has to have their mind right and their heart right. The gap between the two is a foot and a half, though often they seem miles apart.

When the Lady Indians left the court on September 24 in a tough tournament at Gainesville High School, they knew they were lacking something. After starting the day with back-toback losses, TFS rebounded with two straight wins to claim the Silver Bracket title. It might be quite literally the silver lining, but it wasn’t the performance the girls had hoped for. The recipe for an eventual state championship came within and after that tournament. Call it the calm before the storm.

Coach Matt Heyl said after dropping the first two matches in that tournament that the team had played some of its roughest matches all year. Then he acknowledged the final two wins were when things really started to click. Still, something was missing, even if from the outside, it appeared as though a #6-ranked TFS had everything going with a 20-10 record.

“We went through a time where it just wasn’t that much fun, honestly,” admits Heyl. “We all got together for a team meeting and said, ‘the rest of the season, we’re going to have fun.’ We went out to practice and had fun. We started smiling at each other again. It was almost like we were at a burnout spot, and then ‘fun’ got us back into it. Before our huge run, I said, ‘let’s win 16 straight.’”

His girls weren’t catching the meaning behind such an arbitrary number. “’That means we don’t lose and we win the state championship in the end,’” he told the team. “We only lost one game the rest of the way, and that was to Morgan County.”

Morgan County, like Tallulah Falls, went on to win a state championship in Class 3A. Aside from that minor hiccup, which was a tough 2-1 loss, the Lady Indians started playing as well as they ever had before. Just as Heyl forecast, the team went 15-1 the rest of the way, smashing every team record and plenty of individual ones while on the journey to a GHSA 1A State Championship.

The Morgan County match snapped a sevenmatch winning streak, which at the time was the most in school history. October arrived after that, and it was a whole new season for the Lady Indians. TFS went 10-0 from there, claiming the first-ever Area Championship with a straight-set 3-0 win over rivals and #6-ranked Prince Avenue Christian. After four consecutive years of finishing as runner-up in the area, the dominant win got the proverbial monkey off the back and secured a home match through at minimum the Sweet 16, perhaps more. The path from there was difficult, and just playing for a title meant knocking down some giants as well as a Sweet 16 wall that hadn’t been climbed in school history in three previous trips.

As it turned out, the opening round, Sweet 16, Elite 8, and Final 4 were all on the home court. TFS won them all, finishing a perfect 14-0 at home to give life to the mantra of “there’s no

place like home.” The girls pressed on through the first round. Been there, done that. The Sweet 16 was nothing new, except it was being played at home for the first time. It meant taking down #6-ranked Galloway, which came by way of a 3-1 win.

From there on, it was uncharted territory for the Lady Indians.

It was the first of three wins over state-ranked teams from the same region of 6-A. Five teams from that region were top-10 ranked, with only four making the bracket. Had TFS lost to Galloway, four 6-A teams would have played in the Final 4. Tallulah Falls was more than happy to crash the party and didn’t stop there. An easy win in the Elite 8 over Lamar County pitted TFS against #1-ranked Mt. Pisgah. A 3-1 win in the final match at home secured the date to play for a state championship. The girls and coach Heyl were not willing to get complacent. They set their minds and hearts on what they wanted to accomplish.

“We spent a lot of time envisioning the week before the game how it was all going to play out,” stated star senior Sarah Jennings, the Area 8-A DI Player of the Year. “Envisioning us winning points and the game really helped us see that it was a reality – it was possible to beat all odds.”

That they did. The Lady Indians recognized that if they connected the 18-inch-gap between heart and mind as one group, they could accomplish the inconceivable. Tallulah Falls traveled a couple of hours southwest to Cartersville on November 4, 118 miles (you can’t make this stuff up) to the Champions Center at Lakepoint Sports Complex. Taking on Mt. Bethel, who was also a #1-ranked team in another volleyball poll, the Lady Indians weren’t viewed as a favorite to win the match.

The girls claimed the first set despite falling behind early. Mt. Bethel won the second set in a 27-25 thriller, gaining momentum. Then came the epic third set. Down 12-7, it started looking bleak for Tallulah Falls. Addy McCoy was at serve, and the junior stayed put as the Lady Indians went on a 16-0 run that deflated Mt. Bethel and its crowd. TFS polished off the set win with a Jennings spike, setting TFS and Mt. Bethel on the precipice of history and elimination, respectively.

The final set saw the Lady Indians lead or have a share of it throughout. Back at serve while up 23-20, McCoy came through again. Her first serve wasn’t fielded cleanly, leading to an ace to place TFS within a point of the ultimate goal. McCoy yelled, ‘one more’ to her teammates. The final serve hit off the back row receiver, falling to the floor just as the Lady Indians did in celebration. It was a moment when TFS became GHSA State Champions. A moment that encapsulates the greatest season in school history and towing a title that can never be pried away from Tallulah Falls School.

“One More...”

- Addy McCoy

“I just thought about everything that we had been through and thought, ‘this is it, this is the moment every single athlete dreams of….a state championship,’” recalled McCoy of that final serve. “I honestly said a quick prayer, ‘dear God, this is on you; help me, please.’ It worked, and I’m just so glad we had this opportunity as a team.”

The Lady Indians’ dream season became a reality. It all traces back to recognizing that while they were playing solid volleyball, they weren’t having fun doing it until late September. Measuring out in their minds and hearts that they could return to having fun, the rest took care of itself in October and November.

The history-making team set several team records, such as wins (35), win percentage (.761), set wins (84), wins over ranked opponents (8), home record (14-0), and best ranking (#1). The Area 8-A Championship and State 1A Championship were firsts, as was every appearance past the Sweet 16. Heyl eclipsed 100 career wins early in the season, and Jennings set the all-time record in kills (1,085), digs (1,025), and aces (283). She owns the single-match records for kills and digs, and this year set the single-season kills record of 417. Meanwhile, senior setter Kitty Rodenas set the single-season assists (890) and aces (134) records and tied the single-match assist mark. McCoy’s 127 aces were well past the previous school record as well.

The trio of Jennings, Rodenas and McCoy were all 1st Team All-Area honorees. Heyl was Coach of the Year. Seniors Elsa Sanchez and Sofia Rueda were 2nd-Team All-Area, and junior Ashlyn Yaskiewicz was an Honorable Mention. The records, accolades, and stats are all impressive, but what this group leaves behind is much more valuable.

“It’s special to be able to leave a legacy at TFS to show the teams to come next that this is possible,” said Jennings.