Ferrum – Two of the three former Lady Cavaliers players currently playing College Volleyball found themselves in the same Gymnasium last night at Ferrum.
Madison Stockner (Eastern Mennonite University) and Kalee Bunn (Ferrum) first met back in the early days of Elementary School and have been building on their friendship for well over a decade now.
Head Coach Cindy Edwards brought 19 of her current Junior Varsity and Varsity players over on a School Bus and that was just the beginning of the Carroll County High School faithful that made the trek.
Junior Varsity Head Coach Jason Petty and Mama Petty were in the crowd as they had a total of five players between the programs that had played Travel Volleyball for their team.
Both the Stockner and Bunn parents were in attendance and Logan Stockner (Madison’s older Sister) all took in the five set match. Three sets of Parents of the current players also made the windy drive over to the Old Dominican Athletic Conference match.
It’s worth noting that Kayla Nester has a trio of banners she helped the Panthers hang on the Gymnasium wall when she was playing Basketball as Kayla Goins.
The unofficial count of supporters landed at 34 and the two Student Athletes enjoyed their time with everyone following the end of the 2 hour and 26 minute match.
Cordy Gardner (Judson) is the third former Lady 👩 Cavalier playing College Volleyball and Alyssa Ervin would be the fourth if not for her Basketball path.
Family 👪 was the theme of the evening and it created a very special atmosphere, from start to finish. Coach Edwards creates a bond with her players that carries on well past their playing days and Wednesday night presented an opportunity to celebrate with two of your recent success stories.
Stockner and Bunn are both crushing the Academics side of College in addition to playing a game that they grew up playing together. The future is very bright for both of these Lady Cavaliers.
In regards to the actual match, you would be hard pressed to find one anymore evenly played. Ferrum took the opening set 25-22 and EMU needed extras to answer in set two as the Royals fought off a set point to win 26-24.
Set #3 also went into overtime with EMU holding on for a thrilling 28-26 victory. At that point the overall score was 76-75 in favor of the Royals.
Ferrum forced a fifth and deciding game by taking the next set 25-18. The Panthers were helped out by their Student Section, which was full of Ferrum Wrestlers and Football players.
It was fitting that the fifth set was tied at 1,2,5,6,7,8,9 & 10. The home team then closed out the match by scoring the final six points, making a 10-9 deficit into a 15-10 victory.
115-104 in favor of Ferrum and 3-2 as well. But the takeaway from the evening was Carroll County Volleyball- The College Years!
Carroll County landed the #7 seed in this year’s Regional tournament and will open play Saturday at 3pm against the #10 seed, William Byrd. A victory will carry them to a quarter-final match next week at the #2 seed Christiansburg
A.S.P.N on The Hill 