Volleyball action was in full swing on as the Lady Rebels of Fannin County High School journeyed south to face the Lady Bobcats of Gilmer High School, in both varsity and junior varsity action. Both teams pulled off upsets, as the third year program swept both the JV and varsity matches against the veteran laden Lady “Cats;” with the JV winning (25-14(L), 25-16, 25-18) and the varsity winning in three sets (25-18, 25-20(L), 25-23).JV started the action of the night. The first set showed to be all Gilmer. The “Cats” would race out to a 14-4, lead eventually running away from the Rebel ladies, 25-14.

Fannin was fired up in the second set, as the Lady Rebels came out strong, staying neck and neck with the Lady “Cats;” which led to a 16-16 tie midway through the set. After a huge ace, the Lady Rebels took control and never looked back en route to taking the second set.

This momentum, however, would not follow the Rebels into the third and final set. Gilmer took a huge 13-6 lead, but it would not be big enough. The Lady Rebels raced back with a big run to tie the match at 17. Scoring 15 straight points allowed Fannin to take a 23-18 lead.

The Lady Rebels would take the set, and match, when a match point serve landed out of bounds. With the JV match aside, it would be time for the varsity to hit the court.

The first set showed that it was going to be a tight match throughout. The two teams stayed within 4 points throughout most of the match. Once the score reached 16-20 in favor of the Rebels, Fannin looked to close out the set.

The Lady Rebels outscored the home team 5-3 the rest of the set to take the win, 25-19.

With a kill and block, Hope Cochran helped the Rebels run the tally up to a 1-9 game two lead. Gilmer took a much needed timeout to come up with a new game plan. Whatever was said in that 60 second meeting worked.

The Lady “Cats” would take off with a huge 19-4 run against the Rebels making the score 20-13 Lady “Cats”. Fannin tried to make a come back but would only get within five points. The home team took the set win after Gilmer’s Sarah Lambert put an ace in the books to make the score 25-20.

With Gilmer coming off a dominating run, it would follow them into the first parts of the third and final match. As the set went on it would seem as if Gilmer had the edge with the score reached 19-14. Something struck the Rebels and one could see that Fannin was not going to give up.

A Brownlee Ace led to a 7-2 Fannin run that tied the game at 21 all. The score would reach 22-23 with the Ladies from Fannin on top.

During the following volley Fannin hit a ball that was called out of bounds. This would have made the score 23 all; however, Fannin asked the official to ask the flag person if they needed help on the call. The flagman asked the official for his thoughts.

The official overturned the original call saying that it was in bounds, giving Fannin the point. This would be a big momentum switch. On the match point volley Gilmer was called for being in the net, giving the victory to Fannin.