Paradise outside hitter Autumn Proctor winds up for a swing Tuesday against Blue Ridge. Proctor had 16 kills on a .519 hitting percentage in the Lady Panthers’ sweep in the 3AII area championship. BRENDAN MARCHAND | WCMESSENGER
The Paradise Lady Panthers may have played their cleanest game all year Tuesday against Blue Ridge, and did it on the biggest stage they’ve been presented with in their 2025 campaign.
Paradise (30-13) swept the Lady Tigers in the 3A Division II area championship at Sanger High School — 25-14, 25-18, 26-24 — to advance to the region semifinals for the second consecutive season.
Paradise coach Cali Springer said the team’s commitment to watching game film in the days leading up to Tuesday’s match helped propel the Lady Panthers to the win.
“We really just stuck to the game plan. They have two different defenses, and we hammered their first look pretty well,” she said. “I knew they would adjust their defense, and Brooke [Limbaugh] and Autumn [Proctor] handled it super well. They were key tonight just like they have been all year.”
The two sophomores combined for 34 of Paradise’s 52 kills on the night, and did it in efficient fashion.
Limbaugh landed 18 kills on a .325 hitting percentage while Proctor had 16 on a .519 clip.
“We were just doing our job and providing our best for this team,’ Limbaugh said. “The two of us have just been really focuses on playing smart and putting it down when we get a ball, and we’ve exceled at it.”
Proctor evened Set 1 at 6-6 and Paradise never let up its lead after. Middle blocker Ady Stoltz ramped up Paradise’s attack from the middle while also altering a handful of Blue Ridge swings.
The Lady Tigers burned a timeout down 17-10, after which Paradise powered ahead for an 8-4 closing run where Proctor found open floor.
“We watched a ton of film going into the game, so we knew what spots we wanted to go tonight,” Proctor said.
The Lady Panthers mirrored their game plan in Set 2, battling to an early tie then breaking through with Ayla Morrison’s slam dunk on a Blue Ridge overpass to go up 7-4. Blue Ridge took two timeouts and made a late comeback attempt, but the Lady Panthers survived the surge.
“I think this team loves the pressure,” Paradise libero Mackey McQueen said. “We talked a lot about just playing together and talking things through all the ups and downs of the night.”
McQueen was Paradise’s leader on the back row, digging up 14 shots across three sets. She said that Blue Ridge outside hitter Brylee Moore — a Central Oklahoma commit — made the night difficult, but the communication on defense helped limit her.
“She was hard, really hard. She’s an awesome player,” McQueen said. “But especially wearing this [libero] jersey, I just tried to keep everyone together on the same page throughout the entire game.”
The Lady Tigers went into desperation mode to avoid the sweep and didn’t make it an easy third set for Paradise. Blue Ridge led for the majority of the frame until Proctor was able to tool a block to knot up the score at 17 apiece.
After a brief lead, Paradise missed on a few match point swings and elected for a timeout tied at 24 with Blue Ridge. The Lady Panthers then powered through the earlier mistakes to lock up the area championship.
“We talked about keeping our foot on the throttle and not letting off when we take a lead,” Springer said. “When we get to point 17 we like to cruise, but we really challenged ourselves on not letting up tonight. It takes the whole team to do that, holding each other accountable and not letting a single person back down, which is what I love about this team.”
Paradise will face Troup in the 3AII Region II Semifinal.
Springer said the match will likely be Thursday at Forney High School. Game details will be published when announced.
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