LAUREL - Purvis has taken a team approach to volleyball this season, and it is paying off in another strong postseason surge.
The Tornadoes rode a hot start to grab the early momentum, and that was enough to hold off Northeast Jones 3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-23) in the third round of the Class 4A playoffs and advance to the South State championship for the second consecutive season.
Purvis (18-8) will host Region 7-4A rival Sumrall on Monday with a trip to the 4A state finals at stake. The Tigers finished their season 23-9. The Bobcats defeated Poplarville 3-2 to punch its ticket to South State.
“We worked really hard this season on being a united front and not rely on one player,” said Purvis head coach Kaitlyn Aycock, who started the program in 2019 and has quickly built it into a championship contender.
“That makes us really hard to beat. They don’t rely on the outside to crush the ball; they use every person to do what they’re good at. We know each other’s strengths, and we play on that knowledge as a united force.”
NEJ started out with the serve, but that didn’t last long as sophomore Aubrey Easley smashed an authoritative kill to get the Tornadoes on the board first.
Then junior Hattie Tynes took the ball for Purvis and smashed two of her four services aces around a deft winner from senior Shannon Perryman for a quick 4-0 lead that quickly grew to 7-0 before the Tigers figured out Tynes’ serve.
“I always like to start off with a good hard serve, keep it consistent, so it will keep the other team honest,” said Tynes who led the Tornadoes with 24 serves. “It gets my team all hyped up when I start with an ace.
“It’s a float serve, and it moves side-to-side in the air. That’s my best serve that I like when I need a big play.”
Northeast Jones clawed back in the match, closing the margin to three points, 15-12, before Perryman got the serve back in Purvis’ hands with a strong kill, then added two more kills, giving her four for the game, and she would finish with 11 for the match.
Junior Sayler Fletcher closed out the game with a kill, and that set her up for a big role in the second game.
“Our team is completely equal in everything we do,” said Fletcher, who led Purvis with 12 kills. “We have a lot of girls who are extremely excellent in what we do. Everyone on this team deserves to be where they are.”
It was Fletcher who got the Tornadoes back on track after Northeast rallied from a five-point deficit to grab a brief 16-15 lead on a big kill at the net from junior Abigail Gentry.
Fletcher got the ball right back for Purvis with a kill off a defensive set-up, and the Tornadoes followed that up by forcing a defensive error, then Tynes got a kill, Fletcher had another kill, then Perryman had two more.
“We got a little complacent with our scoring,” said Fletcher. “We’d already won the one set, so we got a little complacent. But when we got down, we knew we had to put in the work, and when I got in, I knew I had to get a kill to get us going again.”
Senior captain Lillie Crider closed out the game with a kill of her own, but her presence was best felt on the back end, helping the Tornadoes clear out errant balls and setting up teammates for scores.
“I knew going into this game, that it’s not about us right now; we’ve got to do whatever it takes to help the team get where we want to go,” said Crider, who co-captains the Tornadoes with fellow senior Clara Lott.
“It’s not always appreciated in the stats, but I prefer a win over any individual numbers any day.”
With a team that thrives on teamwork, Aycock said defense is the core of her team’s game, and it showed against the Tigers.
“I felt like Lillie, Clara and (senior) Taylor Jones held the game defensively, and I think that’s what changed the game,” said Aycock. “I think both teams were so talented that it took defense to win, and our defense outplayed their defense.”
Northeast Jones looked to extend the game past the minimum three games with a strong start to the third game, jumping on top 5-0 thanks to uncharacteristic sloppy play by the Tornadoes.
Easley stopped the bleeding with one of her eight kills for the game, and the Tornadoes gradually reeled the Tigers back in.
Sophomore Brooxie Shepherd had a kill, Easley had a kill, then Fletcher had three kills, the third capping a 7-2 run that put Purvis ahead 9-8.
“I think it was just recognizing that it was our errors that got us down there,” said Aycock. “We weren’t being outplayed; our own errors got us down five, six points. Then we just had to control our game and not let referee’s calls or what they were doing bother us.”
Junior Brooklyn Henley had three kills for Northeast, as the Tigers regained the lead and built a 19-15 lead.
But Crider came to the rescue with a pair of kills, and Fletcher added two more in an 8-3 run that turned the momentum in Purvis’ favor for the final time.
“We’ve been working all season on getting mentally stronger,” said Crider. “Honestly, I have to hand it to our coach. She’s been drilling us on coming from behind to finish off the game.
“It’s hard coming from behind, but that’s something our coaches have been working on us all season.”
The Tigers had one final chance to extend the game, getting an unforced error to pull to within 24-23 and grab the serve. But the Tiger serve went awry, securing the victory for Purvis.
A year ago, Purvis got to the South State finals only to lose to Pass Christian. Getting past that point will require beating a team in Sumrall that the Tornadoes swept in the regular season.
The winner plays the North Half winner, Newton County or Northeast Lauderdale, next Friday at the Gillom Athletics Performance Center on the Ole Miss campus in Oxford.
“It’s going to take a good mental game on our part,” said Tynes, who finished with 32 assists to go with her 24 serves. “We just have to believe that we can do it. We have the ability to do it; we just have to stay mentally tough.”
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