The Chamblee Lady Bulldogs moved on to the Sweet 16 of the Class 5A Volleyball State Playoffs with a 3-0 sweep of their first-round match at home against the Ware County Gators on Wednesday night.

Ware County (18-13) jumped out to a 15-6 lead in the opening set before Chamblee (21-21) slowly began to climb back into the match as the Gators tried to hold on to the lead.

A service ace by Kaitlin Yarberry closed the gap to one (17-18) before Ware pushed back out to a 21-19 advantage. Freshman Sydney McMillan set up McKenna Smith for a put away as Chamblee knotted the set at 22-all.

Leading 23-21, Chamblee got back-to-back sets from Natalie Tsai that led to kills by Nayla Norman and the game winner by Maggie Meeks. The pair teamed up for a total of 28 kills in the match, 17 by Norman and 13 by Meeks while Tsai had 32 assists on the night.

After rallying to take the first set 25-22, the Lady Bulldogs rolled through the second set winning 25-16 to go up 2-0 and one set from moving on to the Sweet 16.

Chamblee jumped in front by as much as five points in the third set at 6-1 and 7-2 on kills by Meeks set up by Tsai.

Ware County was not going down without a fight and rallied to take a 16-15 before a save by Smith and another Norman kill off the set from Tsai as Chamblee got back out in front 17-16.

The set was tied at 17-17 and again at 21-21 before Chamblee would take the lead for good on another Norman kill with the assist from Tsai to make it 22-21. Chamblee had match point up 24-22 when Smith took the set from Tsai to put the game away and give the Lady Bulldogs the 3-0 win.

Tsai now has 600 assists on the season and was leading the nation in service aces with 190 coming into the match. Norman’s 17 kills moved her to 210 on the season and Meeks 13 moved her up to 175.

Chamblee hits the road on Saturday for a Sweet 16 match at McIntosh (27-10) which defeated Ola 3-0 (25-18, 25-13, 25-18) to advance to the second round.

In other Class 5A state playoff action, Tucker (17-21) fell 0-3 to Greenbrier (18-16) in a road contest for the Tigers and Arabia Mountain dropped their road playoff match with Statesboro 3-1.

Cedar Grove (3-24-1) dropped its first-round match in the Class 3A playoffs 0-3 (1-25, 6-25, 2-25) to Hart County (27-5) in a match hosted by the Lady Saints.

DCSD VOLLEYBALL STATE PLAYOFF RESULTS
Tuesday, Oct. 17
CLASS 6A
Veterans (29-8-2) 3, Lakeside (28-8) 0

CLASS 4A
Heritage-Catoosa (28-6) 3, SW DeKalb (20-20) 0

CLASS 2A
Athens Academy (13-25) 3, McNair (18-19) 0
Banks Co. (30-9) 3, Redan (14-18-1) 0
Providence Christian (33-11) 3, Towers (5-19-1) 0

Wednesday, Oct 18
CLASS 5A
Chamblee (21-21) 3, Ware Co. (18-13) 0
Greenbrier (18-16) 3, Tucker (17-21) 0
Hanner Fieldhouse – Georgia Southern University
Statesboro (22-17) 3, Arabia Mountain (20-17) 1

CLASS 3A
Hart Co. (27-5) 3, Cedar Grove (3-24-1) 0

DCSD VOLLEYBALL STATE PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
Saturday, Oct. 21
CLASS 5A
Chamblee (21-21) at McIntosh (27-10), TBA