Blairsville, Georgia- The Union County Panthers volleyball team hosted the Pepperell Dragons in the first round of the GHSA state playoffs.

1st Set

The Panthers began the first set playing sloppy. The Dragons came to play and didn’t back down. The Panthers trailed 4-1 early on but started to find some momentum. The Panthers cut the deficit to 6-4 early but the Dragons kept extending their lead. The scoring went back and forth for a good bit. The Panthers started closing in on the Dragons and tied the game at 11. The Panthers took their first lead 12-11. The Dragons would retake the lead 13-12 after a timeout. After a 13-13 tie, the scoring would go back and forth for a while again. The Panthers went on a quick 3-0 run to force the Dragons to call a timeout. The Panthers led 19-16 after the timeout but the Dragons didn’t lay down and quit. After a 22-18 lead, the Dragons would cut the lead to 2. The Panthers would end the set with a lot of momentum and win the set 25-21.

2nd Set

The Panthers started this set sloppy just like the first one. The Panthers got down 3-1 immediately. The Panthers came back to tie it at 6 and took an early 7-6 lead. The Panthers started playing with confidence and went on a 12-3 run to lead 17-9. The Panthers were playing with a lot of energy and were dominating the Dragons. The Dragons started to gain some momentum after some mistakes by the Panthers. The Dragons cut the lead to 22-17 and put the pressure on the Panthers. The Panthers ended the set on a 3-1 run and won the 2nd set 25-18.

3rd Set

To begin the 3rd set, the Panthers knew they needed to get the job done and they played like it. The Panthers started the set on a 4-0 run. The Dragons scored 2 straight points but the Panthers followed that up with 6 straight points that led to a Dragon timeout. The Panthers led 11-3 at the timeout. The Panthers went on a 14-4 run to end the set and dominated the Dragons in the 3rd set. The Panthers swept the Dragons to advance to the Panthers 3rd straight Sweet Sixteen. The Panthers will host Johnson on Saturday October 23 @ 12pm.