Lady Panthers’ Setterlind to play volleyball at Montreat
Patton senior Carly Setterlind on Tuesday signed with Montreat College to play volleyball. Seated with Setterlind are her father John and her mother Gina. Standing is Hayden Huffman, who served as Patton’s head coach for the past three seasons.
The Patton volleyball team totaled just five wins in 2023 before posting an overall record of 35-14 over the past two seasons, with Carly Setterlind serving as one of the driving forces behind the Lady Panthers’ turnaround.
The senior libero/defensive specialist will now look to help Montreat College improve as well after signing her letter of intent on Tuesday to join the Cavaliers, who were winless under second-year head coach Cristina Viera in 2025 while playing a schedule consisting solely of NAIA Appalachian Athletic Conference contests.
Montreat is approximately a 45-minute drive from Patton, and Setterlind stated that she “fell in love with the whole campus” during her official visit.
“I knew from whenever I was a kid I wanted to play in college,” said Setterlind, who plans to major in exercise science with the intention of eventually becoming an occupational therapist. She added that “everyone that was there was so nice, and the girls on the volleyball team had such a great culture, so that really made me fall in love with the school.”
Setterlind has been playing volleyball for about eight years, including the last five under Hayden Huffman, who coached her for two years with the Carolina Select Volleyball Club in Hickory before becoming Patton’s head coach in 2023.
“Something that makes her (Setterlind) so special is just her confidence in the back row,” said Huffman, who stepped down as the Lady Panthers’ coach in February in order to pursue law school this fall. “Not only in her playing ability, but in her role as a leader and captain.”
Setterlind led the Lady Panthers in digs (389) during her senior season, also recording 103 assists and 49 aces to rank third on the team in both categories. The all-state, all-region, and all-conference performer also added 13 kills, and her 760 perfect serve receptions were by far the most among Patton players as she finished her career with 1,679 perfect serve receptions and 840 digs, with 724 of those perfect serve receptions and 314 digs coming as a junior.
As a team, Patton shared the Western Piedmont 3A/4A Conference regular-season title with Draughn, finishing 11-1 in league matches to win its first conference title since collecting an outright South Mountain 2A/3A Conference championship in 2012. The Lady Panthers also posted a 19-6 overall record for their highest win total since finishing 23-7 in 2019, and they earned runner-up honors during the WPC tournament before making their second straight North Carolina High School Athletic Association state playoff appearance.
“My best memory probably would be when we beat our rival team, Draughn, and we tied with them for the conference championship,” said Setterlind. “And honestly the culture of our team was just amazing, like I loved all the girls. There was a rebuilding season we had, and we just kept growing stronger and stronger.”
Setterlind also noted that Huffman “really pushed me to go farther and to work harder and to really earn my position,” while current professional volleyball player Lexi Rodriguez, who was previously “an amazing libero at Nebraska,” is someone she looks up to as well.
Huffman is excited to see what Setterlind can accomplish at Montreat, and she is also looking forward to her being so close to home.
“I think that’s gonna be a great fit for her,” said Huffman. “Not too far from family, so she still gets to enjoy college life, but also gets to come home and hopefully watch some more volleyball at Patton with whoever replaces me. … She’ll have that little luxury of being away from home, but not being too far.”
