Last year, the LaFayette Lady Ramblers rolled past everyone on their way to the Area 7-AAAA volleyball title. But having to replace all six starters from that squad made things very different in 2002.

This year, the Lady Ramblers entered Saturday’s area tournament at Ringgold as the sixth seed and came away with a 1-2 record before falling in the third round.

LaFayette opened their day with a match against third-seeded LFO and fell 15-8, 15-5. Whitney Watson had three kills for LaFayette while Lindsey Coker added two aces. Kristen DeLay had five service points to pace her team.

That set up a second round match with Rome in which the Lady Ramblers needed three games to put it away. Rome took game one 15-10, but spurred on by good play from the bench, LaFayette came back to win the final two games 15-9, 15-7.

Sarah Arseneau had a team-high seven kills for LaFayette. Amanda Bradley added four kills. Whitney Brown had 10 service points while DeLay, the team’s lone senior, had 13 service points and five aces.

LaFayette then faced county rival Ridgeland in a surprise third round elimination match. The Lady Ramblers put up a tremendous fight, but finally fell to the top-seeded Lady Panthers 15-10, 15-9. Coker led the way with six aces and nine service points. Brown added five kills and Watson came through with five blocks.

“We started playing pretty well late in the year,” said LaFayette head coach Debbie Baker. “Once we got the junior varsity players up, it all started coming together. We only lose one senior, so I’m looking for good things next year. It will take some playing time, but we’ll be ok.