SAND ROCK – At the beginning of the 2009 volleyball season, some people questioned whether Sand Rock could return to the Class 2A Elite Eight in Pelham. That’s because the Lady Wildcats had lost one of the state’s top setters in Gadsden State’s Chelsey Chambers.

That role fell on the shoulders of junior Logan Smith, but she had the advantage of five seniors to help her in that transition.

On Thursday, the sixth-ranked Wildcats found themselves one victory away from clinching their sixth straight trip to Pelham. They left no doubt they’re ready for state by blowing past Westminster Christian in the sub-state round in three games, 25-12, 25-9 and 25-18.

I don’t think before the season started we even thought we could make it so far,” Sand Rock coach Lisa Bates said. “We wouldn’t have been sitting here guessing we would be going to Pelham now, but Logan’s worked her butt off and she’s doing a fantastic job setting for us.

"We’ve got hitters putting the ball away. We’re spreading it out evenly. It’s good chemistry. We’re getting to go back to state and we’re fired up about it. It never gets old.”

The Wildcats (44-10) advance to meet Isabella (29-8), which defeated Washington County 20-25, 25-23, 25-11, 16-25, 15-10 in other sub-state action on Thursday. The Sand Rock-Isabella match is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. at the Pelham Civic Complex on Wednesday.

Against Westminster Christian, the Wildcat seniors led the charge.

West Alabama commitment Jennifer Campbell finished with 13 kills, seven digs and three aces. Megan Battles added nine digs, eight kills and two blocks. Carrie Robertson managed nine digs and seven kills. Gena Farmer tallied eight digs and three kills. Kayla Mashburn ended with nine digs.

Smith posted 35 assists, four digs and two aces. Junior middle hitter Karlie Anderson had seven kills, four blocks, three digs and two aces.

“The girls didn’t come out and play nervous. They came out in control and used their energy to really pound at the beginning of the game,” Bates said. “We got out to an 8-1 run in the beginning and kind of shocked them. We were really hitting the ball and hitting it well. We came out and used our energy to the good.”

“We win when we have good balance. We had a lot of people putting the ball away, and they couldn’t just focus on one.”

Something else the Wildcats exploited was the Westminster Christian (16-16) passing. Bates said she noticed a few tendencies in the passing game they had on film.

“We found some passing weaknesses the girls started capitalizing on,” Bates said. “We started serving to some people we found out were not the strongest passers, and that helped us because the girls were serving to good spots. They did a good job with that.”

With the sub-state round behind them, the Wildcats can now focus on making a state championship run next week in Pelham. Four of the past seven seasons, the Wildcats have gone on to the Final Four.

“They’ve worked hard and they deserve it,” Bates said. “We’re hoping to do some good things when we’re down there. We’re where we want to be in the bracket. We wanted to be away from (top-ranked) Addison for a while, but we know we’ve got to take it one game at a time.”