MARIETTA - Sprayberry kept pounding serves at Union Grove and rarely missed.

In fact, the Lady Yellow Jackets' serving quickly turned an evenly played match through the first 20 points into a lopsided one.

Sprayberry churned out 18 aces in three sets before winning 25-16, 25-10, 25-10 over Union Grove on Thursday in the first round of the Class AAAA state tournament.

Blair Winston led with eight aces, and her jump serves rarely missed their target. Katie Gilstrap also displayed a powerful serve and finished with six aces, while Devin Judge added three.

Sprayberry's serving often generated floating returns, which allowed it to set up an attacking offense or hit a winner on the first touch. The Lady Yellow Jackets totaled 32 kills, with Winston slamming 16 of them.

"We practice (serving) every day because it's such an important part of our game," Winston said. "Serving for us is so vital. We hate to lose points on serve."

Sprayberry (31-10) will return to the court Tuesday, traveling to Conyers to face Area 8AAAA champion Rockdale County.

Consecutive aces by Gilstrap, the second going untouched, gave Sprayberry its first lead of the match at 3-2. Afterwards, the teams exchanged leads before Union Grove (40-12) went on a service run to build a 10-7 lead.

But that was the last time Sprayberry allowed the Lady Wolverines to be in control.

Judge's six-point service run gave Sprayberry the lead for good, and it also changed the tone of the match as Judge served back-to-back aces to stake the Lady Yellow Jackets to a 14-10 lead.

Union Grove stayed in the match until Gilstrap took serve with Sprayberry leading 16-12. When Gilstrap finally hit a serve out of bounds, the Lady Yellow Jackets were two points away from winning the first set.

Winston hit a clean kill off a floating return to start the seven-point run, and Gilstrap followed with a clean ace. Winston added two more kills during the run with Tainia Joseph came through with one.

"That was really a momentum-changer," Sprayberry coach Mary-Kay Bateman said. "Katie is one of our stronger servers. She is so consistent and that gives us those four-, five- and six-point runs. Serving makes everyone feel they can take command of the ball and not be afraid of hitting errors."

Gilstrap's serving may have taken the Lady Wolverines out of the first set, but it was Winston that bullied them in the second with her jump serves. Six straight aces highlighted Winston's 10-point service run, which was the longest of the match. It gave the Lady Yellow Jackets a 20-6 cushion.

All of Winston's serves went deep into the back row. The first was untouched and the next two were near unplayable. Union Grove called timeout after Winston's third straight ace, but it didn't stop the bleeding. The next three points were Winston aces, followed by a Judge kill off a weak return.

When the third set started, Sprayberry seemed to be on top of its game in all facets. Four more Winston kills, combined with Union Grove errors, opened a 10-1 lead, and the Lady Wolverines never threatened.

Gilstrap finished with seven kills and led with seven digs for Sprayberry. Nadia Ogene provided 22 assists. Judge added five kills and led with five blocks.