The Pickens Dragonettes’ volleyball team traveled to Lumpkin County High School on Saturday, August 24th to play in the Indian Invitational Tournament and had mixed results, as the squad played in four different matches and ended the day with a 1-3 record.The opening match of the game saw Pickens take on Oakwood with disappointing results, as the Nettes would fall to the Lady Eagles in straight sets.
Following a considerable break while the other teams in attendance faced off, the Dragonettes hit the court again to take on the Lumpkin Lady Indians. The first set of the match saw the home squad jump out to a 8-1 advantage; however, the Dragonettes quickly came back, closed the gap, and subsequently took a 18-17 lead.

Lumpkin refused to take a loss without a fight, tying the game 22-22, but eventually the Nettes got the job done, as after a few more series a return by Sarah Smith hit the floor, giving Pickens a 25-23 game win.

Now with an opportunity to win their first match of the day, the Dragonettes jumped out to a 12-7 lead when Lumpkin looked to flip the script, going on an impressive run to make it a 14-12 contest. Fortunately for Pickens, the team finally found a rhythm, outscoring the Lady Indians 11-6 to win the game 25-18, giving PHS the match victory.

Next up on the schedule was a match against Southeast Whitfield in a pair of games that would prove problematic for Pickens. The opening matchup was highly contested, as the Nettes and the Lady Raiders swapped scores several times until the Dragonettes held a slim 14-13 advantage. At this point, Southeast Whitfield went off on a remarkable tear on their way to a 25-17 victory.

Unfortunately, the next game between Pickens and Southeast Whitfield would not prove to be quite as close, as the Lady Raiders took control early on and would win the game 25-7 for the match victory.

The Dragonettes’ final match of the day pitted Pickens against Heritage’s junior varsity. Although most in attendance assumed the Dragonettes’ would defeat the Lady Patriots with relative ease, but in this case the opposite was true, as Heritage made the most out of the Dragonettes’ mistakes and won back-to-back games by the final score of 25-14.

The Dragonettes will be back in action on Monday, August 26th when the team travels to Tennessee to take on Copper Basin. The game is scheduled to start at 5:00 p.m.