Photo 📷 Credit – Patti Goins
The Hill – Carroll County High School returned to The Hill Monday night to host Pulaski County and the Lady 👩 Cavaliers swept the Lady Cougars 3-0 (25-11, 25-12, 25-20) in front of an energetic crowd.
The non-district victory moved Head Coach Cindy Edwards team to 6-5 and 3-1 in the Three Rivers District. The team will have a small window to celebrate though as they return to action tonight at Patrick County as they finish up a three match in four days stretch.
The combination of the busy stretch and having a few nicked up players led Coach Edwards to mix and match her lineup card from start to finish.
” I thought it was a great chance to play everyone tonight,” said Edwards. ” At the same time not play some that need to rest their injuries.”
Aza Petty led the way with another double- double as the Senior finished with 12 Kills and 12 Diggs. Junior Callie Harris flirted with joining Petty in the most difficult of ways, finishing up with 11 Diggs and a match high 8 Aces. The duo shared something more than stats against PCHS, they were listening to their long-time Coach offer encouragement to her younger players throughout the night. Something that they could appreciate from their early playing days.
One of those younger players is Freshman Raylee Goins. Goins reached double figures in Diggs with 11 and added four Kills and three Aces. Junior floor General Laiken Burnett also recorded a double-double with a match high 24 assists and 15 Diggs. Burnett was impressive with her setting in large part because she was tasked to pass to more teammates than normal.
Carroll County wasted little time in taking control of the opening set as Ali Wright scored a Kill and followed it with two Aces to push the lead out to 11-3. Pulaski County pulled within 14-9 but Harris followed a Burnett 2-ball Kill with three straight Aces to push the lead back to a comfortable place.
Goins sealed the deal in the opening set with two of her Aces and two more Kills from Wright, finishing up at 25-11. The Lady 👩 Cavaliers closed out on a 7-0 run.
Wright is on the list of dinged up players and she would see limited action 🎬 the rest of the match. This created extended playing time for fellow Sophomores Maddie Hyatt and Faith Nicholson.
Hyatt finished two early Kills in the second set and Nicholson added two Aces during the 11-3 opening run of the second set. Petty and Harris took over the next stretch with 3 Kills and 3 Aces respectively, pushing the lead out to 16-5.
Hyatt added two more Kills near the end of the 25-12 victory and then Coach Edwards began to raise the bar for some of her youngsters.
All season long the topic about this year’s team has been how young they were before losing Corrie Delp to an ankle injury. The total number of Varsity years for the squad was in single digits. Yes, Petty and Harris have been playing the game since they learned how to walk but a number of the players are still getting their Varsity feet wet.
Yes, the team is incredibly young and Edwards has been pushing buttons and pulling strings for almost four decades now. A second tag needs to be added to the one about being young and its that they are very, very coachable. So when Edwards started Coaching her younger players more noticeably last night, both Harris and Petty had to be thinking about their early days.
On to the third and what would be the final set, Carroll County pushed their Third Set winning streak out to five straight matches. After dropping the third set to both Marion and Alleghany, the team has not fallen short since.
Pulaski County did not leave the Gymnasium quietly though. Their Junior Varsity team became more engaged during the final set and the Cougars clearly fed off the energy.
PCHS led 7-3, then 9-4 and finally 10-8 before a barrage of Aces would eventually give the lead back to Carroll County. Burnett and Harris picked up two apiece during the decisive run.
The play of the match came at 23-20 Carroll County. Goins went well to her right for a point saving Digg and the ball 🚀 rocketed across the court to Petty, where she reached across her body to start the one armed Kill that set up Match Point. Carroll County closed out the night at 25-20.
Very Young and Very Coachable.
The Junior Varsity team battled their counterparts from start to finish Monday night. Pulaski County won the match 2-0 (25-23, 25-22) but the Lady Cavaliers were knocking at the door 🚪 both sets.
Both team return to action tonight over in Stuart versus Patrick County.
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Borrowing from the WNBA, where they close out game stories from time to time by showing A-List people who attended the game…
Football 🏈 – Mason Crockett was seated right behind Press Row and a number of his teammates were up in the Student section.
Basketball 🏀 – Senior Ethan Richardson was in the building and did a nice job holding the 🎤🎙🎤 and talking about their upcoming season.
Allen “Vern” Worrell of the Carroll News was taking photographs.
Tammy Quesenberry finished off another busy, busy day by taking in some Volleyball 🏐.
Kevin DeHaven is an A-Lister but does it count if you have to be there? Let’s give his nod to Mrs.D
Finally, there was this Lady 👩
I also want to acknowledge the Prayer circle 🔵 🙏 that both teams formed after the Match.
A.S.P.N on The Hill 