The Dubs girls volleyball team is back in action helping to kick off fall sports at North Atlanta. This year, the team is looking to build on the momentum of their last season, where they won their region and made it to the Elite 8 of the state playoffs 

The girls kicked off the season with an unfortunate 3-2 loss to Midtown High School on Aug. 12, but quickly turned things around. The following night, Aug. 17, the team beat both Chamblee and AIS, in both cases with a 2 to 0 score. Another noteworthy aspect of those games was the fact that the team was playing before a home crowd for the first time since the 2019 season after a “fan-free” pandemic-impacted 2020 season. Team members say they were elated to experience the home-court advantage. “Hearing the support from our fans in the stands really lit a fire under us to perform well in these games,” said junior Lizzie Havey. 

Last year, with North Atlanta completely virtual and fans not allowed to attend games, there was not as much attention directed toward the historic accomplishments the team was making. Now that North Atlanta is back fully in person, fans are allowed to attend the games. The team will look to build on their progress of the previous season, but this time with the full support of the Dubs behind them. “We aren’t satisfied with just repeating our success of last season,” said junior Ella McCabe. “It’s our goal to improve this year and hopefully have the opportunity to go even deeper into the playoffs. The support from the Dub fans will be a big part in us achieving this goal.” 

In the playoffs, North Atlanta was defeated by a talented Pope squad. Making such a deep playoff run has only raised expectations and put motivation behind this year’s team to go even deeper. This year the team is being led by senior captains Francie Coleman and Avery Horton. The whole playoff run proved to team members that North Atlanta can be a legitimate contender in the playoffs. “Losing in the playoffs to Pope — a team that wound up being a state runner up — proved to us that we have what it takes to be a real threat to the heavy hitters in our state.” said junior Maggie Koontz. 

Success in previous years is not only inspiring for the upperclassmen that experienced it last year, but also for many of the underclassmen who are joining the team this year, hoping to build upon it. “With it being my first year on varsity I’m excited to learn from and build on the success of the upperclassmen that were here before me.” said sophomore Mattie Mahaffey. 

This new and refreshed volleyball team will look to use their lethal combination of older experienced winners and younger budding stars to build on their success of previous years and show out in front of the Dubs fans this year.