FHS volleyball picked up two more wins last week.
After going 1-1 against two Mountain Six conference contenders in Hendersonville and Brevard in their first two games of the season, the Panthers travelled to Highlands Nov. 23 for a cross-county meeting with the Highlanders. The Panthers started fast, winning the first four points before Highlands returned a serve. While the Highlanders quickly regrouped to make the game competitive, FHS never let up, combining solid defense and quality serves from Amy Tippett, Rylee Corbin, and Kyndell Burns to close out the first game. The second set played out in similar fashion, with many of the Panthers’ shots simply too hard for the Highlanders to handle. The Panthers then claimed the third set to take the match three games to none. While head coach Bekah Brooks said the team did leave a few points on the court, she was happy with her players’ poise against their Macon County rivals.
“I feel like everybody’s going to give us their best shot,” said Brooks. “If you’re going to be good, you’ve got to expect everybody’s best. I though Highlands played very well. We could have done better for the simple fact of just converting and running some more plays, but a win’s a win, and I’ll take it any day.”
After securing the week’s first game against the Highlanders, the next night the Panthers travelled to East Henderson for a marquee matchup against the Eagles. Coming into the match the Eagles had recorded only one loss overall and none to Mountain Six opponents, making the match critical in the quest for first place in the MSC. The first game started in back-and-forth fashion, with both teams trading the first fourteen points to tie the game 7-7. With FHS up 8-7 two points later, a spike by middle blocker Anya Valentine sparked an 11-2 Panthers run to bring the score to 19-9. Down ten, the Eagles seemed to refind their footing, taking four in a row to bring the score to 19-13 and force a Panther timeout. The comeback was too little, too late though, as FHS took six of the next nine points to win the game 25-16.
East Henderson came out swinging in the second set, converting several well-hit balls into an early 6-2 lead. The Eagles remained one step ahead through the middle of the game, combining quality shots with a few Franklin errors to go up 14-7. The Panthers would take seven of the next nine to bring the score within two at 14-16, but the Eagles slammed the door to take the game 25-15.
The third set started much like the first, with both teams trading blows to bring the score to 17-17. With the score tied the Panthers began firing bullets, loosing multiple hard shots over the net that East Henderson could not return. When a Taylor Ensley block ended a marathon point to put the Panthers up 23-17, the game was effectively over, and FHS would win the third set 25-18 to go up two games to one.
The Panthers carried momentum into the fourth set, combining well-placed hits by Canaan Drake and Anya Valentine to get out to a 14-10 lead. After an East Henderson timeout sparked a 4-0 Eagles run, Brooks was forced to call a timeout of her own with the score at 15-14. The timeout worked perfectly, galvanizing the Panthers to win five straight points and cruise to a 25-17 victory. Valentine was especially dominant in the final set, frustrating the Eagles with well-timed blocks and emphatic spikes.
“She was an animal last night,” said Brooks in a call the next morning. “Before the match I got up in her grill and I gave her a challenge. Nobody knows this, but she’s young for her age - she skipped a grade because she’s exceptionally smart, so technically she should be a sophomore. I said ‘You’ve got to throw that stuff out the window; you’re in the big leagues now. I want to see if you can step up and shut these girls down,’ and she came alive.”
In taking two games out of two on the week, the Panthers moved two steps closer to their goal of winning a Mountain Six Conference title. During the match at East Henderson, Eagle fans were largely drowned out by an FHS contingent of fans and the JV team, who also beat Highlands and East Henderson to improve to 3-1. Brooks said this travelling home-court advantage has a big impact on both teams.
“When you’re traveling and all you have there is your JV team, or your varsity team to cheer for JV, we have been the loudest and the most engaged that I’ve seen,” she said. “I preach constantly about togetherness - it’s not a JV program and a varsity, we’re the Franklin, Panthers. We are in this together, and they cheer. They don’t get to sit and just do their own thing. We’re there for each other, and if we didn’t have that, these games wouldn’t be as fun.”