RICHMOND HILL, GA -- The No. 13 6A Richmond Hill Wildcats (26-14) came into the GHSA 6A state playoffs with nothing but winning on their mind.
And that's what they did when the North Atlanta Warriors (8-17) came to town to attempt to upset the Wildcats.
The Wildcats finished the Warriors in three sets; sweeping them to make their way to the second round of the playoffs.
"We won but I still don't think we played to the best of our ability," Wildcats Head Coach Tory Wright said. "We had quite a few blocking and defensive errors. They're errors that we haven't been making: Letting balls go through our hands on the block, letting balls drop right at our feet on defense. Yes, we won but we know that's not the best that we can play."
In the first set, the Warriors showed that they were better than what their record displayed, giving the Wildcats a scare before ultimately dropping 25-23.
In the next go, the competition for the Wildcats died down a bit.
The Wildcats won by ten in the next set with a score of 25-15.
But the Warriors wouldn't go down easily with their season hanging in the balance, putting together a better performance in the second set before losing the set 25-22 against the Wildcats, ultimately ending their season.
The Wildcats have now won 10 of their last 11 contests as they moved past the first round.
"WOOHOO," an elated Wright said after the victory. "That's how it feels. It feels great."
The Wildcats now awaits the results of the Buford/Allatoona game, which is who they will face in the second round.
Buford is 32-4 and ranked No. 5 in the state and No. 2 in Class 6A.
Allatoona is 24-13 and ranked No. 9 in Class 6A.
"Well, we know both of those teams have really strong hitters," Wright said about the Wildcats' potential second round opponents. "So, we are going to have to really focus on that block and our defense and keeping the ball on our side in system as much as we can because that's when we can use our faster sets in all those things. Both of those opponents would be tough matches."