There was a luau theme inside the Newberry High School gymnasium for the Panthers’ volleyball match against visiting Valdosta (GA).
And while the host Panthers kept the home fans entertained early, the visiting Wildcats spoiled the festivities by rallying from an early 1-0 deficit to win in four sets 20-25, 26-24, 25-21, 25-15.
“We killed ourselves,” Rone said. “We hit the ball out of bounds, we did a lot of serve receiving right at the net, and they’re a very athletic bunch up front so when you pass the ball on a serve to the net they just go up and dump it down and every time we got momentum we would just kill ourselves.”
The Class 1A Panthers raced out to quick 4-0 lead in the opening set thanks to kills by junior Chloe Jones and senior Hailey Tharp and a pair of blocks by senior Sarah Watson.
Newberry (5-6) has been working Jones back in the lineup after she missed much of the season with a sprained shoulder.
“We actually gave her 10 swings against Branford (3-0 loss on Sept. 6), so just a little bit, and then Monday (3-1 win at Dixie County) we turned her loose and she’s played pretty good,” Rone said. “She hasn’t practiced, yet. Some of her errors are stuff that we can definitely fix and she’s got to learn where she is and get that timing down, but what she’s done after not doing anything since Aug. 3 is pretty impressive.”
Jones, who added three aces, and Tharp led the Panthers will 11 kills each.
They each had a kill late in the second set and it appeared the Panthers might take a 2-0 lead against the Wildcats (11-10), a Class 7A school in Georgia.
Following a 23-20 Valdosta lead, Tharp’s sixth kill of the set made it a two-point game.
Then, two aces by junior Sarah Priester was sandwiched around Tharp’s kill, which…
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