Chamblee’s Erin Carpenter (front) makes a dig against Rome while teammates Anna McDaniel (6) and Kennedy Preval (22) are ready to help out. (Photo by Mark Brock)

The No. 8/10 ranked Chamblee Lady Bulldogs advanced to the Class 5A state playoffs Sweet 16 for the second consecutive season with a 3-0 sweep of the Rome Lady Wolves at Chamblee on Wednesday night.

Chamblee made short work of the opening set rolling to a 25-12 win to go up 1-0 in the best-of-five match to open the Class 5A state playoffs.

Rolling out to a 13-4 lead in the second game, the Lady Bulldogs extended the lead to 21-7 on consecutive kills by Camille Van Leer and Becca Evans.

Rome showed some life pulling winning seven of the next 11 points, but still trailed 24-14 when Van Leer sealed the game with a put away across court to end the game at 25-14 for a 2-0 lead for the Lady Bulldogs.

The third set was a bit tougher in the early going with Rome going up 3-1 before Chamblee rallied to go up 11-7. Rome then came back to tie the game 12-12 before Chamblee went up 13-12 and Evans got behind the service line.

Evans would win six consecutive service points as Chamblee pulled away 19-12 before Rome picked up another point. The Lady Bulldogs (27-11) ended the game as Rachel Loftus set up Jade Watson for a game-winner at the net to end the match with a 25-14 win for the sweep.

Chamblee moves on to host Decatur (34-10) on Tuesday, October 17 at Chamblee with a time to be announced. Decatur has won two of three matches played against Chamblee this season.

In other Class 5A play, DeKalb did not fare as well as Arabia Mountain (0-3 vs. Kell), Southwest DeKalb (0-3 vs. Hiram), Miller Grove (0-3 vs. McIntosh) and Clarkston (0-3 vs. Carrollton) all lost their first round matches to end their 2017 seasons.

The Class 3A state playoffs were not kind to DeKalb either as Redan (0-3 vs. East Hall), Stone Mountain (0-3 vs. Greater Atlanta Christian) and Towers (0-3 vs. North Hall) all fell out of the postseason with losses.

Druid Hills (12-12) goes on the road to take on Upson Lee tonight at 6:30 pm in Class 4A state playoff first round action.

2017 DCSD VOLLEYBALL STATE PLAYOFFS
FIRST ROUND
Wednesday, Oct. 11
CLASS 7A
North Forsyth (38-9) 3, Lakeside (19-18) 0

CLASS 5A
Chamblee (27-11) 3, Rome (15-12) 0
Kell (19-25) 3, Arabia Mountain (21-13) 0
Hiram (35-4) 3, SW DeKalb (19-10) 0
McIntosh (27-3) 0, Miller Grove (17-13) 0
Carrollton (19-8-1) 3, Clarkston (8-28) 0

CLASS 3A
East Hall (31-17) 3, Redan (22-8) 0
Greater Atlanta Christian (28-13) 3, Stone Mountain (16-12) 0
North Hall (43-10) 3, Towers (9-11) 0

Thursday, Oct. 12
Druid Hills (12-12) at Upson Lee (8-8), 6:30 pm

2017 DCSD VOLLEYBALL STATE PLAYOFFS
SECOND ROUND
Tuesday, Oct. 17
Decatur (34-10) at Chamblee (27-11), TBA