Photo Credit : Patti Goins
The Hill – Aza Petty had an evening to remember and its fitting because her Family has given so much of their lives to the Carroll County Volleyball program.
Carroll County High School (11-8, 6-4 Three Rivers District) celebrated Senior Night Tuesday and took care of visiting Floyd County 3-0 ( 25-6, 25-10, 25-10) right after taking care of Miss Petty.
Players graduate 🎓 every year but this one is just a bit different as it signals the end of a long run of having the Petty Family at the center of Head Coach Cindy Edwards program. From travel ball to School teams for the past decade it has involved Aza, Big Sister Skyler, Coach / Dad Jason and team Mom, Christina.
Petty is set ( Volleyball term) to graduate High School early and begin College up in Wytheville in December and it will be fun to see what’s next for this impressive Young Lady 👩 who has averaged one Surgery per year of your life.
During the ceremony, Assistant Coach Maleah Neely both began the cycle of Love shown and then concluded it. In between Coach Edwards and five of her current teammates took their turn holding the 🎤 and sharing their thoughts on the Petty family 👪.
Once the time for first serve rolled around at 7:15, there was no chance that any of the Lady Cavaliers were going to let their ” Team Mom ” on the court or the Official one in the stands, down.
The Trifecta of trying to erase the memories of at James River, the fact that it was against a team that hasn’t won a Match in the District this season and the emotions from the ceremony made this the quickest match of the season.
Petty finished the night with 11 Kills, 7 Aces and 8 Digs. While the evening was all about Petty, there were some significant things that happened as well.
Junior Corrie Delp dressed in uniform for the first time this season. While Delp did not see action in the match, it was special to see her dressed for the first time since her pre-season broken ankle.
Fellow Junior Brooke Webb played with a level of energy and hops that stood out at the end of many, many points.
Junior Laiken Burnett looked very comfortable in her role as team Quarterback and she did a great job distributing the ball to a large number of hitters as Edwards made sure that everyone was able to take some swings.
Ali Wright combined some Lasers with some soft touches throughout the night. Exchange student Leny Richter entered the match late in the second set, much to the delight of the home crowd. The crowd erupted again when the Junior scored her first Kill in the final set to make it 18-8.
Petty mixed her Aces between well struck and well placed. Others with Aces included Callie Harris, Burnett, Wright.
Raylee Goins opened the night with a Kill on the very first point and Arizona Thompson’s block in the third set pushed the lead to 12-5 in the closeout set. Maddie Hyatt joined the Aces club during the closing set.
Alyssa Lawson and Heidi Painter both received extended playing time and made contributions throughout the match.
Carroll County threw a Party 🥳 for Aza Petty and all of her friends and teammates both attended and participated. Very fitting for such a strong individual and fierce competitor.
[ JV received their own story tonight]
CCHS returns to action Thursday night with an opportunity to officially punch 👊 their ticket 🎟 to the District Tournament when they host Patrick County. The Lady 👩 Cavaliers are currently tied for third with James River but the Knights hold the tiebreaker. The top four teams advance and the only one that can still crash the party is Patrick County(3-6) but the Cougars would have to close out with three straight wins to have a chance to tie the Lady Cavaliers.
*** Tonight, Radford (7-2) will travel to James River (5-3)
A.S.P.N on The Hill 