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The last time the Surrattsville High School volleyball team reached the Maryland state semifinals in 1985, the team's current players were still several years away from being born.

But Thursday night at the University of Maryland's Ritchie Coliseum, Surrattsville (14-2) will be back on the state-wide stage. The Hornets notched a three-game sweep of Baltimore's Carver High on Friday in the 1A South Region final. Surrattsville also defeated Southside Academy in four games and swept Forestville in two prior rounds to reach the region final.

"It's a big step for us, because we haven't gotten [to states] in a long time. It just puts our school back on the board," said Surrattsville's Moriah Perry.

The Hornets' state semifinal opponent is 1A West champion Smithsburg (17-0). Surrattsville coach Arthur Warren said his team's play has improved throughout the season.

"We're not beating ourselves with the serving errors and hitting errors," Warren said. "It's really been all about teamwork this year. Whoever is in the back row knows that it's her job to get the ball to our outside hitters or our middle hitters. We just don't try to bump the ball back across the net. We work as a team and pass the ball to our hitters."

Smithsburg is accustomed to going deep into the region playoffs and owns five state titles (1981, 1989, 1998, 2000 and 2001). The Hornets, meanwhile, reached the state semifinals in 1978, 1979, 1981 and 1985, but the Clinton school has never won a state title. Surrattsville lost the state final to Hereford in 1978. High Point (1979) and DuVal (1980) are the only county schools to win state volleyball titles since the tournament began in 1975.

"We're going to have to work on hitting and finding targets on our serving," Warren said. "We're really going to have to step up our level of play. We had the chance to scrimmage a 4A school and National Christian before the season started. It gave us a chance to see how those bigger schools move and communicate. We've done a better job at that this season."

While the Surrattsville volleyball team is new to the state tournament, many of its players have previously reached the big stage in basketball. Last March, the Hornets lost in the 1A state final with a tall lineup that included Perry and Mallory Johnson, both of whom are 5-foot-10. Johnson and Perry also are members of the volleyball team, along with fellow basketball teammates Amber Walls, Tiara Battle and Ciara Williams.

"Our outside hitters [Walls and Perry] and our middle hitter [Johnson] have really done well hitting at the net this year," Warren said. "They've gotten kills this year, whereas last year they were not so good at hitting the ball over."

"It really means a lot [to win the region] and it shows that we've come a long way because we got knocked out in the first round [last year]," Johnson said Friday after the Carver match. "And being a senior and knowing that I'm a part of that is big."

Staff Writer Hunter Pavlik

contributed to this story.