By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

VANCLEAVE — Home-standing Vancleave made quick work of Natchez in the opening round of the Class 5A South State playoffs Tuesday night.
The Lady Bulldogs, under the direction of second year head coach Tyler Denmark, knocked off the visiting bunch of Lady Bulldogs 3-0 allowing only 11 points in the first two games and 21 overall in a convincing 25-4, 25-7, 25-10 sweep.
Vancleave now advances to host Region 4-5A rival Gautier in the Class 5A South State semifinals Thursday night at 6 p.m.

“It was good to go out and execute our serves the way we did, that’s been a focus for us all year.” Denmark said. “It’s the one skill each individual player controls themselves. We have had a great group of young ladies who lift one another up, put the team before themselves and it makes our job as coaches easy.”
For Vancleave, Bernadette Schroder registered nine serving aces to lead the way to the win, while Presleigh Tapp added seven aces and had four kills.
The Lady Bulldogs moved to 18-6 overall with the win.

“We are focused on being the best version of ourselves every day regardless of who is across the net from us,” Denmark added. “We want to leave no doubt when the match is over we left it on the court. We are taking it one game, one set, and each point as it comes. If our effort and focus is constantly there we can do something special together during the playoffs.”
Gautier advanced to second round play with a 3-0 sweep on the road of Florence Tuesday night. The win moved Gautier, who finished as the third seed in Region 4-5A, to 15-13 on the season.

The Lady Bulldogs swept the Lady Gators twice during regular season play in a two week span last month.
Region 4-5A still has three of the four teams left in the Class 5A South State playoffs after second seed East Central swept visiting Brookhaven Tuesday night 3-0 as well. The Lady Hornets head up to South Jones for second round action Thursday night.
The winner of the Vancleave-Gautier match-up and the East Central-South Jones affair will face off in the Class 5A South State championship round Monday night.