Hillgrove caps senior night with tough 3-0 win over East Coweta

As the Hillgrove Hawks volleyball team looks to make another trip to the Georgia High School Association state championship tournament, they picked their second straight win on Wednesday to improve to 11-7 on the year as they defeated East Coweta 3-0 in a best of five matchup. And while the Hawks did not drop a set to the Indians, their senior night celebration proved to be a battle tested night.

“It was a good scrappy win. I’m proud of them for fighting through. We’ve battled a lot of injuries, a lot of newness this year and they just push through and they keep working and they keep having a good attitude about it,” Hillgrove head coach, Claire Self, said after Wednesday win, in which Hillgrove found themselves having to battle back from deficits in sets one and two.

“I feel like when they settle down and they play together and they take care of their serve, I think that’s where we control it and so we just have to keep working on those things that we do well and make sure that it’s calm and consistent,” Self added as she discussed the way her team overcame falling behind in two of the three sets.

With Wednesday’s win, Hillgrove wins back to back matches for the third time in the past eight games and look to keep momentum down the stretch with 13 regular season matches remaining, including five region match ups. And order for the Hawks to make another final four appearance and maybe even a title game berth, Self would like to see her team “get comfortable and keep pushing and I want some of the newness and awkwardness to kind of wear off and for us to really gel as a team.