The first few minutes of Walton’s state volleyball title game were very un-Waltonlike.
Lassiter got off to a hot start, leading the first set 5-0 before Walton coach Suzanne Fitzgerald called a timeout to settle down her team.
“I just reminded them why they’re here, what they’ve been playing for,” Fitzgerald said. “They responded very aggressively.”
The Lady Raiders were able to come back with such a flourish several times as they downed their East Cobb rivals 25-18, 25-17 and 25-14 Saturday night at Marietta High School.
For Walton (32-8) to win a fifth consecutive Georgia High School Association Class 7A title was not a surprise.
The dynasty Fitzgerald has maintained—nine state titles in the last 10 years, and the school’s 13th in all—is as strong as ever.
But after last year’s seniors departed—and they were an integral part of Walton’s 2017 team that won the MaxPreps national title—some new leaders and a good number of new starters had to step forward.
“Every team is so different,” Fitzgerald said. “With this team, we had a lot of kids who have been in the program a long time. They were representing something larger than themselves, and they showed it tonight.”
Some of those players have been part of Walton’s feeder system since the third grade. That experience, and that sense of togetherness, paid off when the Lady Raiders needed to separate themselves from Lassiter.
In the second set, Lassiter (32-8) also led early, with Fitzgerald calling another timeout. Walton responded in a similar fashion, roaring to a 20-15 lead that the Trojans could not match.
During the break, Fitzgerald said was overcome with some emotion as she prepared her team to try and close out Lassiter in a sweep.
“I saw that they realized they really were playing for each other,” she said. “We played a very clean match today.”
In the final set, Walton never trailed, taking a 6-1 lead, then 13-4, before putting Lassiter away for the third time this season.
Like the senior class before them, this class of Walton seniors has never known anything but winning a state title: Madison Morey, Kendall O’Brien, Phoebe Awoleye, Sydney Barrett and Katie Strickland.
“This senior class has left a legacy of selflessness,” Fitzgerald said.
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Lassiter has never won a state championship in volleyball. The teams have met twice this season, with Walton winning by a 3-1 score in August and 3-0 in the Region 4AAAAAAA tournament.
