Rockdale Citizen

It was a Tuesday evening to forget in Coweta County for the Rockdale volleyball team.

The Bulldogs dropped a pair of matches -- 2-0 to Northgate and 2-1 to Columbus -- in non-area play.

In the loss to host Northgate, which was Rockdale's second in 11 days against the Area 4-AAAAA school, the Bulldogs fell 25-12 and 25-14, despite a team-high four kills from Abby Bradford.

"We had a little talk back in the locker room, I just told them we had to come out and play better," said Rockdale coach Stephen Sansing. "What we did against Northgate, it just wasn't the way we're capable of playing."

Things got better right away for Sansing's bunch as Rockdale erased an 18-15 deficit and knocked off Columbus, 25-23 in a match up of 2011 Elite 8 teams. But the good feeling didn't last long. The Blue Devils exploded early in game two and led 15-0 before Rockdale's first serve.

"I tried to call timeouts, tried subs, (but) that one server just gave us fits. We just couldn't do it," Sansing said. "It sucked all the air out of us."

Columbus pulled away in game three, winning 25-11 to clinch the match. For Rockdale, Majesti Bass led the way with four kills in the three games.

"We went to the third game, we were already broken. They just started pulling away as we went on," added Sansing. "The way we played (in game one against Columbus), we played well in that one game. Even for us to win the one game against Columbus, that was a big deal. But Columbus got mad and they put it to us. We got work to do, we got some things and we'll have to fix them."

Rockdale hosts local rival Eastside and Union Grove tonight at 5 p.m. at Davis Middle School.Patriots win a pairThe Heritage volleyball team had a much better fate Tuesday, sweeping a pair of matches from in Danielsville. The Patriots had no trouble with host Madison County, winning 25-19 and 25-11, then had to battle to defeat local rival Alcovy.

Heritage won the first game 25-15, but Alcovy rallied to win game 2, 25-22 and force a deciding game. It was all Patriots in the final as Brianna Dafney (nine kills, five aces against the Tigers), Mycah Boland (six kills, six aces) and Kaylee Jenkins (10 assists, eight aces) helped secure a 25-13 win.