Last Saturday, the Starr’s Mill varsity volleyball team entered the region tournament a no. 6 seed. After defeating Northgate 2-0 and a 3-2 loss to Northside, the Lady Panthers secured the fourth spot from region 2-AAAAA.

“I think they were feeding off the energy from Wednesday,” head coach Jason Flowers said. ”We played the best we have all year on Wednesday, and I think that just continued today. The threat of if you lose you go home tends to motivate.”

During both games, the Panthers played with energy on the court and had much faster starts than previous games. The Panthers have struggled with serve receive all season, but they have adapted well in time for the region tournament.

“It didn’t really have to be said but I think for the seniors, for the five of us, it’s our last year and we want to make it to state,” senior Luna Wan said. “We didn’t want yesterday to be our last practice, and we want to end on a good note. We didn’t want to not make it to state.”

In the match against Northgate, Starr’s Mill garnered momentum in the first few points and ran with it for the rest of the set, winning 25-16.

In the second set, Northgate started pushing back when their playoff lives were on the line. Nevertheless, the Panthers edged them out and won 25-23. Junior Nicole Smith led with 12 kills and 11 digs. Senior Luna Wan added eight kills and 19 assists. 

“It’s kind of a fight or flight situation,” junior Nicole Smith said. “If we lose we’re done, and I think that really motivated everybody. We didn’t want to be done.”

During the Northside match, Starr’s Mill trailed the entire first set, losing 25-19. The Panthers struggled with their serve receive and had trouble keeping up with Northside in the beginning of the first set. 

In both the second and third sets against Northside, the Panthers had to come from behind to win 26-24 and 25-18.

The Panthers lost the fourth set 25-19, and finished the match with a 15-10 loss.

During the match against Northside, senior Luna Wan had 20 serves with 4 aces, 17 kills, 22 digs, and 23 assists. Junior Nicole Smith had 22 kills and 18 digs, senior Ashlyn Mercure had 14 digs and 21 assists, and senior Rachel Thomas had 29 digs.

“The rest of the season is three out of five so we have to get used to that length of play and keeping our focus that long even if we’re getting tired,” Flowers said. “We will use it as a learning step and motivation for the next one.”

In the first round of GHSA state playoffs this past Tuesday, Starr’s Mill defeated Woodward Academy 3-1. The Panthers will have to continue fighting in order to keep their season going. Starr’s Mill will be playing against Eagles Landing this Saturday at 6 p.m.