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The LaGrange Academy volleyball team has the chance to make history on Tuesday. The Warriors will travel to Covenant with an elusive region championship on the line.

“To be in this position is partly because the girls are playing really well and partly because the girls have been willing to change, adapt and learn,” LaGrange Academy coach Scott Lewis said. “We have tweaked the system this year and the girls have really adjusted and learned it quickly.”

The Warriors have been on a steady rise the last several years. The team won just one game in 2021 before making their first playoff trip in 2022, a first round exit in straight sets. In 2023, the team made even more history, winning their first playoff game by beating Monsignor Donovan Catholic School in three sets. 

“I think it’s a big step, being able to say that we competed, really competed, with some of the best private schools and public schools,” junior Georgia Martin said. “We were, like, addicted, to beating the other teams in the country.  We came close to being (the Dig Pink Tournament) champion. It’s just a big step in the development of the program.

The Warriors beat LaGrange High and Callaway High before falling just short to Toup High last year at the Dig Pink Tournament which helped elevate the Warriors program to prominence in the area.

This year’s Warrior team was not supposed to be here. It was supposed to be a rebuild year with a plethora of eighth graders and freshmen on the team and no seniors. The team has just two juniors, Martin and Cameron Petite, who are leaders on and off the court for the team. 

“We really just wanted to develop a team, we weren’t going into it with the expectation of doing so well, but we ended up surprising ourselves,” Petite said. “First game, we went into it thinking, oh, we’ll do fine, but we’re not going to be this good. But once we started actually playing, it just started developing and we started playing well.”

“I think last year was more of an aim to win, this year our aim was to develop,” Martin added. “We ended up starting better than we expected and we changed what we wanted to do this year.”

The team came together quickly over the summer with Martin and Petite quickly embracing the younger girls and helping them adjust to the varsity level.

“The pace and energy is so much higher,” freshman Izzie Frazie said of high school volleyball versus middle school. “The older girls really helped us adjust.”

LaGrange Academy also only has two sophomores on the team, Marley Hand and Alivia Brown. Both were key players last season and their roles have been elevated in 2024 with the loss of five seniors from last year’s team.

“I remember our first practice really together and I said, this is not bad for being a rebuild and really made me question if this would even be a rebuild,” Lewis said.”

The Warriors have shown a ton of growth from day one to where they are now. LaGrange Academy stood no chance against Konos Academy in the second game of the season, being easily dispatched in three sets. On Monday, the Warriors showed their growth and got their revenge, stunning previously undefeated Konos in five sets.

The environment at LaGrange Academy volleyball games has grown alongside the team. A rowdy student section and a packed house is expected at any Warrior home game.

“When we go to other places, we don’t have that same energy because we really feed off the crowd,” Brown said. “Whenever we look over and see our student section cheering for us it elevates us.”

When Lewis took over the program over two years ago, the team did not know what to expect. The Warriors quickly embraced their new coach and vice versa.

“He’s also a big reason that our program is progressing a lot because he’s so invested in us and his team, and he loves the culture of the school,” Petite said.

Excitement is brewing for this season and beyond. With the entire team returning next year plus an influx of girls from the middle school ranks, the Warriors future is bright. 

“We are excited about the present but also about the future,” Lewis said. “We are trying to build a consistent winning culture around LaGrange Academy volleyball.”