Halfway through their conference schedule, Panther JV volleyball remains unbeaten.
After a near-flawless 2023, including a 20-1 record and a Mountain Seven title, Franklin’s JV squad is on another tear this fall. In winning their first 12 matches largely without two of their best players, head coach Cindy Harrell credits her team for another stellar start to the season.
“What I’ve loved about our JV is the fact that those two girls got pulled up, and what our JV did was they decided they weren’t gonna depend on two people. They were gonna do this season as a team, and that’s what they’ve done,” said Harrell of playing without front-row standouts Danni Ledford and Ella Raby. When varsity stalwarts Cali Queen and Audrey Pressley suffered injuries early this season, Ledford and Raby were called up to the varsity team and defied expectations, playing key roles in the squad’s 12-1 start this season.
Despite losing Ledford and Raby, casual fans would never guess that the JV team is playing shorthanded, having won 24 of their 27 sets so far. On Sept. 10 the Panthers hosted their chief conference rivals, West Henderson, and established themselves as the M7’s team to beat down the stretch.
The Panthers came out firing in front of a large crowd on Tom Raby Court, winning eight of the first 10 points behind two kills from Olivia Anthony. From there West slowly clawed their way back, cutting their deficit to 24-22 despite several points from Anthony and Finley Moffitt. The comeback was not to be however, as Addie Powell blocked a game-point Falcon attempt to win 25-22. Franklin’s back row players impressed throughout the set, turning in strong team defense, pinpoint sets from Shelby Adams and aces from Anna Stiles and Aubrey Newsome.
Moffitt, Anthony and Emma Hatch stayed hot in the second, scoring multiple points apiece to give their team a 12-6 lead. Once again West quickly regrouped, winning eight of the next 10 to tie the set at 14.
Franklin soon kicked back into gear however, winning the next five points including three kills for a commanding 19-14 lead. Newsome and Anthony added aces down the stretch to thwart another West comeback attempt and win 25-22.
“We watched a lot of game film and put together a game plan, and they followed it,” said Harrell. “Their blocking coverage, their hitting coverage, our defensive play tonight was on point – I couldn’t be more proud. Your front row always gets a lot of glory because they’re the ones coming with the hard kills, but our back-row defense tonight was amazing. Their passing was phenomenal, and a lot of people don’t realize that if you don’t get a good pass to your setter, she can’t set your hitters up to do what they do, and tonight our defense was on point. I was very proud of them.”
In dispatching West, the JV Panthers have now beaten each of their six conference rivals in straight sets, and host East Henderson Sept. 17 to start the second half of their M7 schedule. Much like last year, Harrell says being the first-place team comes with its own challenges.
“Now that we’ve played everybody in our conference and gone through it unbeaten, that means everybody – it doesn’t matter if they win any other game this year – they’re gonna be gunning for us because everybody wants to take down the unbeaten,” she explained. “I know for us, that’s dang sure what we’re gonna be doing on varsity when we get to West – we want to take down the unbeaten. We know that the bullseye on our back just got bigger tonight – much bigger.”
With nine matches to play Franklin is still far from an unbeaten season, including trips to Pisgah Sept. 24 and to West Oct. 3. Harrell says that while the team must stay focused and stay diligent in their workouts, they have the resources to turn in another sterling season.
“I couldn’t be more proud of them. They’ve had a great season so far,” she said. “We’ve still got to work on our serving, but other than that, if we keep playing the way we did tonight, I feel very good about the rest of our season.”