Draughn volleyball falls in NCHSAA 3A West final
Draughn High School volleyball players and coaches celebrate the team’s NCHSAA 3A West Regional semifinal victory over Union Academy on Saturday, Oct. 25, in Valdese.
Reddy
Gibson
Friedman
Sawdy
The Draughn volleyball team concluded the longest playoff run in the sport by any Burke County team in 24 years by losing Tuesday night’s NCHSAA 3A West Regional final at No. 1 seed Pine Lake Prep in straight sets.
The host Pride (20-4) — who have dropped just one set in the postseason thus far — won by scores of 25-15, 25-17, and 25-16 to advance to meet East No. 1 seed Ayden-Grifton (26-7) in the state championship match today (Nov. 1) at N.C. State’s Reynolds Coliseum.
The No. 6 seed Lady Wildcats (23-6), meanwhile, were left to reflect on the best season in program history, which included back-to-back conference regular-season titles and conference superlative awards for senior Bailey Mozeley and coach Triniti Lambert, a program-record win total, and the program’s first conference tournament title in addition to its first venture into the state’s Final Four round.
Draughn led early in each set, leading as late as 8-7 in the first set, 9-8 in the second set, and 11-10 in the third set (on a Kylie Corpening block) before each time Pine Lake Prep found its rhythm down the stretch.
A Mozeley kill provided the guests’ final point of the season as things were as close as 21-16 in the third.
The Lady Wildcats had continued their deepest run all-time in the playoffs on Saturday, Oct. 25, winning their fourth-round match over No. 10 Union Academy in four sets, 26-24, 20-25, 25-23, 25-16.
“This is the farthest we’ve gotten, obviously, my four years and beyond,” said the Lady Wildcats’ Peyton Brewer, one of the team’s six seniors who supplied seven digs and two aces in the team’s final victory and who has strong family ties in the sport locally.
Brewer’s aunt, Leah Lail, played on the 2001 Freedom team, the last Burke County team to reach a West Regional final in volleyball. That feat came two years after the Lady Patriots were the only state title volleyball team in county history, and Brewer’s grandmother, Debbie Kendall, was an FHS assistant coach during that era.
“The fact that I get to carry on the legacy is amazing,” Brewer added. “It’s great to be part of it, and the community we’ve had come out to support us has been amazing.”
Lambert — who has been aiming to win a state title since she took the job about 16 months ago — said it “took grit and perseverance” to earn the win as the team approached the precipice of county volleyball immortality.
“That’s something we have worked on all season, having that mental toughness and just being able to power through,” Lambert said. “We had a couple moments where we weren’t playing with our energy of focusing on our side of the court, and we talked about that and we fixed it.”
Draughn surged to an 8-2 first-set lead after senior Mozeley’s first kill of the evening, prompting a Union timeout. The Lady Wildcats never trailed in the set and led 3-1 early in the second before an ensuing 9-0 Union run changed the complexion as the guests evened the match.
Draughn flirted with squandering another early lead in the third set, up 6-0 on a Bella Whitson block before later trailing, 13-10. But the Lady Wildcats rattled off four straight points, capped by a Corpening kill, and never trailed again en route to a 2-1 edge.
The fourth set featured 11 ties and three lead changes, with Draughn taking control for good as back-to-back Mozeley kills made it 14-13 and jumpstarted an 11-1 scoring run.
Draughn had advanced to play Saturday after a wild reverse sweep of No. 3 seed host East Surry in the third round on Thursday, Oct. 23.
After dropping the first two sets, 17-25 and 22-25, Draughn claimed three straight by scores of 25-12, 25-20, and 16-14.
The Lady Wildcats in that win were led statistically by Mozeley (30 digs, 12 kills), Ashlyn Heavner (23 assists), Lillian Collins (12 kills), Macy Auton (five aces), and by Corpening, Whitson, and senior Ava Aldridge (three blocks each).
“Against East Surry, we were the team that was down and made that comeback and they weren’t able to reverse that momentum,” Lambert said. “We knew we didn’t want to give (Union) any momentum and risk doing that. We took a second and talked about it. We knew we had to stay on the service line, stay in control, and the main part was doing that together. Once all six people on the court were one being again, we started moving and flowing and playing our game.
“Union is a talented team, they’re good at finding where you are not and hitting it there. They’re smart and aggressive. I thought our girls did a really good job making adjustments to what they were doing.”
Mozeley (13 digs, team-high 12 kills) and fellow junior Shelby Proffitt (24 assists, 10 digs) both notched their third straight double-double effort in the state playoffs in round four, while other DHS contributors included Auton (20 digs, three aces, two assists), Heavner (15 assists, two kills), Aldridge (nine kills, seven digs), Whitson (seven kills, five blocks), Corpening (six kills, three blocks), Collins (four kills), and senior Ella Anthony (six kills).
TENNIS
NCSSM pair wins 1A state doubles title
It was an all-NCSSM-Morganton affair in the doubles title match of the NCHSAA 1A individual state championships at Cary Tennis Park on Saturday, Oct. 25.
In the end, West Regional champions Riya Reddy and Leah Gibson remained undefeated in doubles play for the season by topping Lady Dragons teammates Gina Byon and Kirsten Boyd, 6-1, 6-4, to claim both the school’s first state title of any kind and Burke County’s first tennis state title of any kind.
Reddy, a senior, and Gibson, a junior, did not drop a set in the two-day event that got underway last Friday. They defeated Vance Charter’s Rowen Hall/Nilay Akyar in the quarterfinals, 6-0, 6-1, and easily disposed of North Stokes’ Reagan Dixon/Lexi McBride 6-4, 6-2, in the semis.
The senior duo Byon/Boyd reached the final with wins over Laura Smith/Natalie Hollis of Bear Grass Charter (6-1, 6-1) and Mak Allen/Maggie Moody of Chatham Charter (4-6, 6-3, 6-0).
NCSSM-M junior Anjana Ramanujam was state runner-up in singles, winning 6-0, 6-0 and 6-1, 6-2 in her first two matches before falling in the title match to Abby Crawford of Thomas Jefferson, 1-6, 0-6.
Dragons junior Shrika Chatta also won in the singles quarters (6-0, 6-4) before being ousted by Crawford in the semis.
West No. 1 seed NCSSM-Morganton (10-0) concludes the season as it plays East No. 2 Bear Grass Charter (10-10) for the 1A dual-team state title today (Nov. 1) at noon at the Burlington Tennis Center.
CROSS COUNTRY
Lady Dragons win 1A West regional
Two-time conference individual champion Stella Friedman was one of two Burke County winners at the NCHSAA West Regional cross country championship meets on Saturday, Oct. 25, at the Tryon International Equestrian Center in Mill Spring.
Friedman (19:50.8), a senior, won by nearly 48 seconds in the 1A girls race, leading her Lady Dragons to their first-ever regional team title in the sport and the only one won by a county squad this fall.
Other runners on the NCSSM-Morganton girls regional title squad included top-10 individual finishers Amelia Fleury (third), Alexandra Hexemer (fifth), Nicole Taylor (sixth), and Gracie Toplitz (10th), plus Lilah Johnson and Lia Gracia.
Meanwhile, sophomore Elisabeth Sawdy of Patton (18:56.5) won the 3A individual regional title and helped lead her Lady Panthers to a runner-up team finish as they joined the Dragons in qualifying for state.
Sawdy will be accompanied at state by teammates Layla McGuire (fifth), Nora Wykle (12th), Julia Niehoff (15th), Anna Aiken, Payton Hunt, and Evelyn McGuire.
Also qualifying for state as a team were the third-place NCSSM-M boys and sixth-place East Burke girls in the 4A classification.
Max Vaughan (17:12.0; fifth) led the Dragons’ effort, and teammates Will Evans (11th), Brayden Tody (18th), Aiden Marshall (20th), and Alexander Hruby (21st) also had strong showings. NCSSM’s Josh Gandy and Henry Omstede will also run at state.
The Lady Cavs were paced by Lacie Forino (31st), who will be joined by Gracie Kaylor, Aubrey Sanders, Gracie Smith, Maliena Smith, Genevieve Wilson, and Kalie Young at state.
Four other county runners qualified for state individually this past weekend: East Burke’s Elijah Baker (sixth), Draughn’s Adelei Morrow (11th) and Noah Thomas (16th), and Freedom’s Frank Harrelson (34th).
The state championship meets are this weekend (Friday, Oct. 31 and Saturday, Nov. 1) at Ivey Redmon Sports Complex in Kernersville. The first day features the 1A boys (9 a.m.), 3A boys (9:40 a.m.), 1A girls (10:20 a.m.), 3A girls (11 a.m.), 4A boys (2:25 p.m.), and 4A girls (3:45 p.m.), while the 6A boys run in the afternoon on day two (2 p.m.).
SOCCER
Patton finishes off conference title run
Patton won at Chase on Tuesday night, 4-2, to claim the boys program’s second outright conference title in three years and fourth title in the last decade.
Junior forward Trevin Lavoie supplied a goal and an assist to lead the Panthers (18-2-2, 13-1 Western Piedmont 3A/4A Conf.), who also got a goal apiece from Abraham Miguel, Jimmy Monzon, and Noah Krogel and an assist from Gabino Vasquez.
Patton will receive a first-round bye in the 3A bracket when the NCHSAA announces its state playoff pairings on Sunday (Nov. 1) and will open the playoffs at home on Thursday, Nov. 6, looking to add to an all-time county-record run of three consecutive seasons reaching at least the third round.
Two more Burke County teams will make this season’s playoffs, while the other two finished the season on a rainy Monday night in Icard as Draughn (2-14-2, 2-11-1 WPC) topped rival East Burke (0-17-2, 0-12-2 WPC) by a 3-1 margin.
Jake Powell scored two goals, and Charlie Tzoc Xec added the other goal for the Wildcats.
Also Monday, Freedom remained tied at halftime at rival McDowell but fell by a 4-0 margin. The Patriots (5-15-1, 2-8 Northwestern 6A/7A Conf.) are No. 42 in the latest 6A RPI ratings and will open the playoffs on the road in round one on Nov. 4.
And NCSSM-Morganton (10-6-2, 8-6-1 Catawba River 1A/2A/3A Conf.) last week played to a scoreless tie at Queen’s Grant on Monday before Wednesday’s scheduled senior night contest against Jackson Day was postponed. A Dragons’ win clinches a fourth-place finish in the nine-team league, however they could finish as low as a tie for fifth place with a loss.
Regardless, NCSSM-M (No. 11 in 1A RPI) is looking at a first-round bye and home postseason opener on Nov. 6.
GOLF
NCSSM-Morganton competes at state
Three NCSSM-Morganton girls golfers competed at the NCHSAA 1A/2A state championships on Monday and Tuesday at Gates Four Golf and Country Club in Fayetteville, with inclement weather shortening the scheduled 36-hole event to 18 holes.
Senior Claire Gamache shot matching nines of 46 to finish with a round of 92, good for 18th place as she helped lead the Lady Dragons (300) to an eighth-place team finish. Both marks were program-bests for NCSSM-Morganton.
Gamache’s round at the 5,365-yard, par-72 layout included five pars (three on the back nine) and eight bogeys.
NCSSM-Morganton junior Mady Schoenfisch shot 100, highlighted by a 47 back-nine, to place 27th individually, and classmate Priana Patel carded 108 to finish in 49th.
Avery County (263) won the team title by 18 strokes, and Jackson Day junior Landry Hamm (76) won individually by five strokes.
JV FOOTBALL
Freedom, EB win streaks halted on road
The JV Patriots battled back from a 12-0 halftime hole to lead 16-12 but fell 18-16 as host Alexander Central scored a touchdown with just over 4 minutes left on Thursday, Oct. 23, to snap Freedom’s two-game win streak.
Christian Chapman (team-high 94 rushing yards) and Wyatt Cantrell both found the end zone on the ground for Freedom (4-4, 2-2 NWC), while Ryder Huffman passed for 50 yards, all to Desmond Carson, and Huffman and Chapman both rushed for two-point conversions.
Clayton Bell tacked on 129 yards on three kickoff returns, and Johnny Mabry (14 tackles) and Jerwayne Logan (nine tackles) were among six JV Patriots with tackles for loss.
East Burke (4-5, 4-2 WPC), meanwhile, suffered a 50-28 road loss to East Rutherford to end the season on Oct. 23, snapping its three-game win streak. No JV Cavaliers statistics were available.
Paul Schenkel can be reached at 828-445-8595 or paul@thepaper.media.
