High school girls’ volleyball is underway as the sixth annual DCSD Spikefest Volleyball Tournament was held last weekend with the Chamblee Lady Bulldogs picking up their third title in tournament history.

The defending champions Lady Bulldogs had to rally from a first game loss (23-25) to their rivals Dunwoody Lady Wildcats to win the next two games, 25-12 and 15-9 to win the title.

Dunwoody had taken the opener on a nice shot by Liz Duke with Chamblee serving to try and knot the match at 24-24. Duke’s shot to the open court put the Lady Wildcats (5-1) up one game to none.

Debbie Kitzler’s block at the net gave Chamblee a 14-9 lead in the second game and forced Dunwoody to call timeout as a 5-5 game had turned into a five-point deficit.

Jade Watson’s kill made it 16-9 before Dunwoody picked up a 10th point. Chamblee took a commanding 24-11 lead on a block by Watson at the net and with a 24-12 lead Watson had a nice put away to knot the match at 1-1.

Watson and Ava Grace Samford combined for a block as the Lady Bulldogs (6-0) jumped to a 10-2 advantage in the deciding third game of the match on the way to a match clinching 15-9 victory.

Chamblee had gone 3-0 in pool play to advance as the No. 2 seed in the Gold Bracket with wins over Cross Keys (25-7, 25-6), Southwest DeKalb (25-7, 25-12) and Columbia (25-8, 25-10). They opened the bracket play with wins over Clarkston (25-6, 25-8) and a semifinal win over Druid Hills (25-7, 25-14).

Dunwoody also went 3-0 in pool play at Redan with wins over Miller Grove (25-7, 25-3), Tucker (25-10, 25-12) and Stone Mountain (25-10, 25-3). Dunwoody won its opening game in bracket play 25-7, 25-16 in a rematch with Tucker and then slipped past Decatur (25-23, 25-22) in a very tight contest.

Chamblee’s Erin Carpenter was named the tournament MVP.

Columbia finished 1-2 in pool play, but rallied for three consecutive wins in the Silver Bracket to take the top spot in the bracket.

The Lady Eagles opened with a 25-11, 25-22 win over Miller Grove and followed with a tough three-game match against Stephenson (25-15, 19-25, 15-7).

Lithonia (7-3) reached the Silver finals against Columbia (4-2) with wins over Towers (25-11, 25-14) and McNair (25-17, 25-23).

The two Area 5-5A squads had to go three games to decide the winner after Lithonia won the opener 25-16. Columbia bounced back with a 25-20 win in the second game and the squeezed out a 15-12 win in the tiebreaker.

Columbia’s Kayla Burton was named the Silver MVP.