Self-inflicted mistakes, missed opportunities but a whole lot of heart; despite a valiant effort from Caledonia’s volleyball team, the 2025 campaign for the Cavaliers ended with a 3-0 defeat in the semifinals of the MHSAA Class 5A playoffs Monday night in Lafayette.
“We put it all out there, we just essentially got outplayed,” head coach Samantha Brooks said. “I mean, bottom line, we got outplayed. Our hustle was good. It was a dogfight. We gave it our all, we just got outplayed.”
The defending back-to-back 5A champion Commodores were in a battle to open the match, and had to fend off a Cavs charge from being down 22-12 in the first set, to win 25-22.
“That right there shows you the amount of fight we had in us,” she said. “We just couldn’t close the deal.”
Lafayette won the second set by its largest margin of the match, 25-19, and had to once again scrape and claw for every point in the third set, but many times it was the Cavs giving the Commodores their points.
“We made several of our own mistakes, but they were mistakes where we were playing hard or we had something we were trying to do, maybe serve to a certain area and just served too short, things like that. … I am proud of them. They put it all out there, they gave it their all. They did not lay down and hand the game over, we just had a few too many errors and essentially got outplayed.”
Caledonia ends its season at 21-13-2 overall in its first venture into the 5A classification, something Brooks said she is proud of. There is a lot of tough competition in the team’s new Region 1-5A, including Lafayette. One of the highlights of the season for Caledonia was handing the Commodores their only conference loss.
“I’m proud of my girls,” Brooks said. “Top-four in 5A in our first year ever being in 5A? I mean, that’s really impressive. … Our leadership with our seniors was just really impressive this year. They’re leaders on and off the court. We’re going to miss them a lot.”
The Cavs are losing five seniors to graduation, several of whom were starters, and two are going to continue playing volleyball at the next level. Libero Addison Finch and hitter/setter Bes Sumrall have both signed on to play at Meridian Community College, Brooks said.
“That’s exciting for us too,” she said. “To continue to see them play and the chapter is closed here but their volleyball chapter is not closed, so that’s fun too.”
Lafayette squares off against Sumrall at 11 a.m. tomorrow for a bid to three-peat as a Class 5A champion in volleyball. The Commodores took down Cleveland Central, New Hope and Caledonia along its trip to the state title game. Sumrall defeated Stone, Vancleave and Purvis to punch its ticket to tomorrow’s contest.
Madison Central will play Ocean Springs at 7 p.m. for the 7A state championship, Lake Cormorant will play George County at 10 a.m. for the 6A championship, New Albany will play Newton County at 2 p.m for the 4A title, Alcorn Central takes on Our Lady Academy at 10 a.m. for the 3A crown, Walnut squares off with Lake at 2 p.m. for the 2A championship and Ingomar battles Ethel at noon on Friday for the 1A state title.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
