CREEDMOOR–With a week remaining in the regular season, these are precious times for the Orange volleyball seniors.
Together, Katie Silcott, Aubrey Jordan, Mariah Poole, Addison Guentensberger, Milleka Purcell, Gianna Negron and Ava Wilkerson (in absentia) have gone to the 3A State Championship match, won a regional championship, two conference championships and a league tournament title.
And they only have a few more matches together.
While they Lady Panthers won’t win the Big 7 Regular Season championship, they’ve understand how sudden a state tournament can be. All it takes is one strong night to make the improbable possible.
They’ve benefitted from it and they’ve fallen victim to it.
On Tuesday night, Orange improved its RPI for the upcoming 5A State Tournament with a sweep of South Granville in Creedmoor on scores of 25-14, 25-18, 25-10.
Junior Sawyer White finished with 12 kills and added nine assists and four digs. Jordan finished with eleven kills and seven digs. Silcott led Orang with 17 assists, eight digs, six kills and three aces.
Orange improved to 7-9 overall, 5-4 in the Big Seven Conference. The Lady Panthers are tied with Carrboro in the loss column for third place in the league. Seaforth, which will host Orange to wrap up the regular season next Thursday, is in second place at 7-2.
South Granville (6-13, 3-7) was led by seven kills by senior TiaTana Bate. Sophomore Kaylee Aiken had 12 digs.
Poole helped Orange pull away in the opening set with consecutive aces, followed by an unassisted kill by Jordan to go ahead 13-9. Orange finished the set with a 10-1 run, which included two kills by White and a block by junior Kaleeya Fearrington. Silcott ended the opening set with a flash attack assisted by Jordan.
Orange started the second set with a 6-1 run, which included two kills by Jordan and another from Aubry Hodges. Orange built the lead to as much as 12-3. White and Jordan each had five kills in the second set. Remarkably, the Vikings narrowed the gap to 18-14, but White shut down the threat immediately with an ace and a kill on consecutive points.
South Granville took a 6-4 lead int he third set but Orange scored nine consecutive points to take away any drama. Silcott and Fearrington had blocks on back-to-back points. Silcott delivered an ace on match point.
Cedar Ridge 3, J.F. Webb 0
The final instalment of the fifth season of “Seinfeld” is known as “The Opposite Episode,” which som diehards view as the point where the show jumped the shark in 1997.
On Tuesday night, Cedar Ridge delivered its version of the Opposite Episode on Senior Night at Red Wolves Gymnasium. Players got to play different positions from what they’ve grown accustomed to over the past four years. Instead of libero, Sydnee Tapper was an outside hitter. So was Emory Williams. Claire Hargett was a middle blocker while Ellamarie Perel took up the role of setter. Only the seniors played as head coach Khoury May didn’t substitute once. It mattered little as the Red Wolves rolled to its 17th consecutive win on scores of 25-13, 25-10, 25-11.
Kayla Stoll led the Red Wolves with eleven kills and a career-high 12 assists. Tapper had a career-high seven kills, along with six digs.
Hargett finished with three kills, putting her career total at 1,039. She is now 24 kills away from Cameron Lloyd’s school record of 1,063 kills.
Cedar Ridge scored eight straight points in the first set to go ahead 21-11. Tapper had a kill assisted by Perel during the run. Stoll had an unassisted kill for set point.
The Red Wolves led in the second set 16-7 after a kill by Stoll. A block by Mia Marty, usually a setter who played outside hitter, ended the second frame.
Cedar Ridge will travel to Carrboro on Thursday night. A win will ensure the #1 seed from the Big 7 Conference going into the 5A State Tournament.
