Photo 📷 Credit : Patti Goins
Stuart, Virginia – To say that the trip over to Patrick County High School hadn’t gone as Cindy Edwards had hoped would be an understatement. The program was without Junior Varsity Head Coach Nikki Heflin and three players as they took the floor against the Cougars.
Edwards joined Shelia Harris on the bench during the second set but couldn’t prevent the 2-0 sweep. Fast Forward to the start of the Varsity match and the team is playing without two starters as both Laiken Burnett and Ali Wright were unavailable.
Somehow, Carroll County battled to within 19-18 in the opening set before the home team closed out on a 6-0 run for a 25-18 victory.
In the second set Carroll County led 6-3 after a Corrie Delp Kill but PCHS scored 14 of the next 17 points to pull ahead 17-9. The highlight during the deciding run was Senior Callie Harris recorded her 1,000 career Dig, becoming just the second Lady Cavalier to reach that mark.
Patrick County closed out the second set at 25-16. Going back to being swept in The Hill earlier this season, Carroll County had dropped all five sets against a team led by eight Seniors. Que the opportunity to start looking ahead to the next match and making post match dinner plans.
Maddie Hyatt played the match of her season and the Junior was becoming more and more comfortable as the night played out. Fellow Junior, Faith Nicholson spent the entire match wearing the Libero jersey and she too played at a high level throughout the night.
The two Juniors teamed up to fill the gap created by the injured Burnett and it freed up Harris to take the big swings usually taken by Wright.
Trailing 6-5, Harris landed three Kills during a 5-0 run, led by Brooke Webb at the service line. The next 5-0 run had Nicholson at the service line and was sparked by a Hyatt Kill and a block from Hyatt and Raylee Goins.
Webb followed two more Harris Kills with three of her own and just like that, Carroll County avoided the sweep, 25-16.
Arizona Thompson, Corrie Delp and Clara DeHaven all had their moments in the victory but Carroll County still trailed 2-1.
Set #4 was tied at 2 thru 7 and again 10-14. Looking like it would go that way until the end, CCHS strung together Kills from Webb, Harris, Delp and Webb again to make it 18-14. At 20-19, Nicholson headed to the service line and finished with an Ace during the 5-0 run 🏃♂️ and just like that it was 2-2. Nice comeback and all but the fifth set would be a race to 15, where anything can happen.
Carroll County led 10-7 and just when it was okay to dream, the Cougars scored the next 5 points. Harris answered with both a Kill and an Ace to tie 👔 it at 13-13.
Goins made it match point with a Kill and the historical comeback ended when Goins and Webb teaming up for the clinching point with a picture perfect block.
The match was the first of the final six Three Rivers District matches for Carroll County. The team made the turn at 2-4 and were starring at four of the six being on the road. The difference between 3-4 and 2-5 heading up to Glenvar on Tuesday night is the same difference between the start of the match Thursday night and the end of it.
12-6 / 3-4 with five matches left to play.
The road less traveled ! 