By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

BAY ST. LOUIS — Our Lady Academy maintained a course on a journey that it’s very familiar with Monday night.

The home-standing Crescents. The back-to-back two time defending Class 3A state champions, punched their ticket back to the title round once again with a 3-0 sweep of visiting West Marion in the Class 3A South State championship match.

OLA will now face North State champ Belmont Thursday afternoon at 2 p.m., at A.E. Wood Coliseum in Clinton on the campus of Mississippi College with its third straight state championship trophy on the line.

On Monday, Taylor Henley tallied 19 kills and Class 3A “Miss Volleyball” Myah Favre added 16 kills and six serving aces to the winning effort, while Kinsley Stegall had 19 digs and Ava Davis registered 44 assists.

The Crescents moved to an impressive 40-4 overall with the win. Belmont stands 29-11 after staving off Kossuth 3-2 Monday night.

Also, there were seven other “Southern Six” squads in action Monday night as well.

In Class 1A, Resurrection fell to visiting Stringer 3-1 in the Class 1A South State finals and Poplarville dropped a 3-2 match to visiting Purvis in the Class 4A South State championship match.

In Class 7A, Ocean Springs swept visiting Brandon 3-0 in the Class 7A South State finals to advance to the state finals against Lewisburg Thursday night at 6 p.m., also in Clinton.

In Class 6A, an all “Southern Six” affair resulted in Hancock’s third win over Region 4-6A rival George County as the home-standing Lady Hawks swept the Lady Rebels 3-0 in the Class 6A South State finals. Hanock will meet Lake Cormorant at 4 p.m., Thursday afternoon for the Class 6A state title also in Clinton.

And, not to be outdone, in Class 6A yet another all “Southern Six” encounter saw East Central earn some revenge against fellow Region 4-5a foe Vancleave as the visiting Lady Hornets pulled out an exciting 3-2 win over league champ Vancleave after the Lady Bulldogs swept ECHS in regular season play.