Baker rings up seventh straight district championship

BRATT — Baker continued its dominance of District 1-2A volleyball Thursday as the Gators swept tournament host Northview in three sets (25-21, 25-15, 25-18) to claim their seventh consecutive district crown.

Baker (16-2) will host the runner-up from District 2-2A in the regional quarterfinals at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

“It feels great,” senior setter Lauren Griffith said of the win. “I think we came out ready to play the first game tonight. Sometimes we come out slow and then have to pick it back up, but I think we came out strong and played good the whole time.

“I’m just ready for us to take it to the next level and keep playing good.”

Baker coach Lisa Roy was pleased with the way the Gators were clicking on all cylinders.

“They hustled tonight more than I’ve seen them do in a while,” she said. “For the most part tonight they hustled and our serves were right on, and that’s something we needed to work on.”

The Gators beat the Chiefs twice during the regular season, and midway through the first set they stepped it up a notch to dispel any ideas that the third time would be the charm for Northview.

The Chiefs led 11-8 when Caitlin Holley put down one of her three kills.

Holley’s shot seemed to spark the Gators, who continued to rally with Kaylee Bradley in serve. Baker led 14-11 before an unforced error out of a Northview timeout gave the Chiefs the serve back.

Northview did close to within a point, but could never pull even.

The Gators were at their best in the second set. The Gators jumped to a 10-5 lead and continued to pour it on with big hits from Mollie Royal and Allysa Horn.

Down 2-0 in set three, the Chiefs faced an uphill battle and they did their best to push the Gators to a fourth set.

But after taking a 16-13 lead, Northview ran out of gas. Baker scored eight unanswered points to regain the lead and 12 of the last 14 points to seal the victory.

“It’s a tradition, especially in girls sports,” Roy said. “We have some good athletes and we like to win. We try to do our best and do what it takes to win.

“They did a great job and played a great match tonight and I’m proud of them.”

Roy admitted the pressure of winning the seventh title was a motivating factor.

“We talk about that (the consecutive district titles),” she said. “They don’t want to be the ones that don’t win it.

“That was a little bit of extra drive for them to do good tonight.”