Eastside's girls volleyball team finished its regular season slate on a hot streak. The Lady Eagles won four of their last five matches. 

Even following an intense, non-region loss with Eagles Landing Christian, head coach Maggie Johnston pointed to a few things she hopes to see more of moving forward. 

“I really like our odds of being able to make it to the playoffs if they can bring that intensity. We don’t always match the level we can get to in games. We just got to show up and do what we can do,” Johnston said. “Overall, I’m very impressed with their blocking and we got good touches on those fast pace balls.” 

The Lady Eagles currently have an 18-15 overall record as well as a 3-2 mark in Region 8-AAAAA. As a result, they will enter Tuesday, Oct. 10's region meet at Jefferson as the No. 3 seed. 

Eastside only trails Jefferson and Loganville in the standings. 

As far as preparation is concerned for the region meet, Johnson stressed it will not be too complicated at this juncture of the year. 

“Come out…get some touches on the ball, make sure we’re getting good serves, emphasize blocking, work on a fast offense and not do anything too fancy at this point,” Johnston said.

Prior to the season’s start in early August, the players on the 2023 squad set out a mission statement along with a few goals to aim for. 

The theme of this year’s mission statement was to be in “beast mode.” 

Johnston believes that mindset can carry the Lady Eagles a long way with the postseason on the horizon. 

“One thing that they decided they were going to do is not let any dropped balls. Although they have their moments, they really strive on defense to make sure they don’t have any dropped balls. That was one of their big lines in their mission statement,” Johnston said. “The other components they have in there are to keep things fun and keep things easy going. Those two components together are when we play our best.”