Volleyball: East Jackson drops Tuesday matches, JV finishes at 12-7

EAST JACKSON closed its regular season Tuesday with losses to Morgan County (25-12, 25-16) and Hart County (25-22).

Madison Mealor led the Eagles with 11 kills. Jo Melendez picked up 11 digs. Rosie Melendez finished with eight assists and four aces.

East Jackson will most likely earn a no. 5 seed at the area tournament, meaning it will probably face North Oconee in the first round or possibly Morgan County. The area tournament is set for next Thursday and Saturday at North Oconee.

The East Jackson junior varsity lost to Morgan County and then beat Hart County convincingly to finish the year at 12-7.

Eagle coach Tim Thomas noted that this is the first time an East Jackson volleyball team has finished with a winning record.

“Coach Rainwater has done an amazing job with that group, and we’re going to be pulling some of those girls up to play with our varsity over the last couple of weeks,” Thomas said. “They have definitely earned the opportunity.”

East Jackson turns in ‘best performance of the season’

EAST JACKSON volleyball coach Tim Thomas said his team enjoyed its best performance of the season Thursday in a 25-17, 25-18 win over Winder-Barrow.

Senior Rosie Melendez led the team with 16 service points, seven assists and six aces.

“We tried a couple new things that we’d been pondering for a while, and they worked out pretty well,” East Jackson coach Tim Thomas said.

Those moves included moving Melendez from outside hitter to setter, which she played earlier in her career.

“She responded very well to the move,” Thomas said. “We also shuffled a couple other girls, and each of them also responded well to those changes. Our hitters made very few mistakes — in fact, the difference in the outcome was simply that we made fewer mistakes at every position than Winder. If our girls could maintain the level of precision they showed in that match, we could play with just about anyone we’ve seen this year.”

East Jackson lost to East Hall the same night, 25-15, 25-14.