What a week for SWR volleyball: Wins against UCA, Asheboro and ER on consecutive days

ASHEBORO — There are certain games that a high school athletic team will circle during the course of a season where there’s a little more emphasis placed on doing well because the result could be so significant.

Southwestern Randolph’s varsity volleyball team not only had one of those games circled last week, but they had the entire week circled as the Cougars matched up with Four Rivers Conference and state 4-A power Uwharrie Charter Academy, a non-league battle with a very talented rival in Asheboro High School and a return back to conference play to meet county foe Eastern Randolph on back-to-back-to back nights.

Challenge met.

The Cougars had an outstanding week of volleyball with two thrilling come-from-behind five-set wins over UCA and AHS before capturing its 22nd straight match over Eastern Randolph, a stretch that started on Sept. 9, 2014.

“This was a make-or-break week,” said veteran coach Darby Kennedy after her team entered play this week with a 10-4 overall record, including 2-0 in the FRC. “We are ready to go into our conference and our conference is challenging in certain ways. But it was these two really big games back to back (UCA and AHS).

“We played Asheboro all summer long and (AHS Coach Kellie Smith) and I love our kids to play each other. We knew this would be tough. We knew UCA would be hard.”

The week began last Tuesday with a crucial FRC opener against the Eagles, who advanced to the state 4-A championship match last season. In a jammed Jack Castelloe Gymnasium, the Cougars pulled out a 25-12, 23-25, 20-25, 25-23, 15-13 victory.

SWR took things one step further the next night at AHS as they fell behind 2-0 before rallying for an edge-of-your-seat 22-25, 20-25, 25-20, 25-22, 15-12 victory over the Blue Comets.

“They listened and followed the game plans well,” Kennedy said about what stood out about those two wins. “They take instruction really well. Some kids struggle with criticism and being critiqued. These girls are different. They crave that and ask for it. 

“We had a really good week of saying we have to make this adjustment and they go and try and make the adjustment. We’re really quick to adjust when we need to and we can find ways to win even when things are not going any kind of way we wanted them to.”

Junior outside hitter Cheyenne Dixon was a key cog in both wins as she had 16 kills, 24 digs and nine aces against UCA and 22 kills, 27 digs and two aces against AHS.

“We start pretty slow sometimes,” Dixon said. “When we were down two sets to Asheboro, Darby told us if we beat this team, we’re the best in the county and that flipped a switch for us. 

“You’re down two sets and some might question, oh, it’s going to be a loss tonight. None of us like to lose. We’re not losing this game and went out there and made it work.”

The wins over UCA and ER came at home with the road win at AHS sandwiched in between. The atmosphere for the first two matches was vastly different, Kennedy said.

“I feel these girls have grown up together with each other for so long and they competed against one another for so long, it’s just a great atmosphere,” Kennedy said. “(UCA) travels well and you have all that emotional energy. It was loud in here, it was packed. Then we go to the Asheboro gym, which is so big and cold. That air conditioning works really well. Our girls kept saying how quiet it was in there. It’s so big and it doesn’t look like a lot of people are there. We knew it would be hard. 

“Asheboro is a great team and they played awesome. Coming off all that energy from the night before, it took awhile to catch up with that energy the next night.”

Kennedy and the players pointed to an early-season tournament in Rock Hill, SC, a tournament the Cougars attended for the first time as a key reason for playing with hard-hitting teams. Kennedy said a tournament in Chapel Hill, which was the normal destination for her team, was moved back a week and it didn’t seem to line up with what the Cougars wanted to do. So, like UCA, they went to South Carolina for two intense days of volleyball against incredible competition.

SWR lost matches to Mountain View Prep, Catawba Ridge and Weddington before defeating Charlotte Christian and Ardrey Kell.

“We’ve got a group of seniors and juniors who have been a part of the program the last couple of years,” Kennedy said. “We’ve always had a stacked schedule at the beginning of the year and they are, fortunately at this point, used to what the goal is in those games. We are going to face these giants and we’re going to try and compete. That’s our goal. If we come out with a win that’s a bonus. We see the fruits of their labor now facing off against some tough teams.”

The Cougars showed a lot of fight in the wins over the Eagles and Blue Comets.

“It was a very heavy two days,” Kennedy said. “So many of them play travel ball and I just kept telling them they are used to this and wanted to make sure they are building that mental confidence in themselves and tell them they are resilient and they can do this.”

After the impressive wins over UCA and AHS, the week was still not over. Playing on its third consecutive night, the Cougars defeated 

Eastern Randolph, 25-12, 25-9, 25-11 to finish an impressive week of action.

It took a whole team to get through last week and another waits this week. After a FRC contest at Jordan-Matthews Tuesday, the Cougars are scheduled to meet powerful North Stanly, a 12-2 team that handed the Cougars their only setback in the past 10 games heading into the week, on Wednesday. The third game of the week will be Thursday at Northwood.

“The girls are stepping into leadership roles and trusting one another and they are respecting each other no matter how old they are and that is a huge thing for us,” Kennedy said of her team that is getting valuable contributions from sophomores, juniors and seniors. “No matter what age they are, they are stepping up and doing a job and holding each other accountable.”

Kennedy said the Cougars have even more room to grow.

“I want to say and hope we’re halfway to where we want to be,” Kennedy said. “They are working hard there and there are a lot of things we can do to speed up our game. We’re undersized, especially compared to UCA and Randleman. Because we are undersized, we have got to be quicker, we have to communicate effectively. 

“We are getting there, but we’re definitely not where we want to be. It’s one of those things where they want to get better every game.”