Panther volleyball’s quest for a state title continues.
On the week of Oct. 16, Bekah Brooks’ team faced a busy slate of games, traveling to Sylva for the Mountain Seven Conference Tournament and hosting Round 1 of the 3A State Playoffs. While they lost a heartbreaker to North Henderson in the conference final, they beat East Rowan in three sets to advance to round 2 of the state tournament.
On Monday, Oct. 16, the Panthers traveled to Smoky Mountain for a date with the tournament hosts. After upsetting the fourth-place Black Bears 3-2 in Canton in Round 1, the fifth-place Mustangs entered the semifinal with a full head of steam.
In a rematch of two 3-0 Panther wins this regular season, Franklin wasted little time in Set 1, taking a 9-3 early lead behind points off serves from McCall Sanders, Cali Queen and Emma Ledford. Queen only grew hotter from there, adding three kills en route to a 25-15 win. McKayla Sanders played strong defense throughout the set, while Kyrah Bowles posted two impressive kills.
Senior Jocelyn Rios led Franklin into the second set, posting three kills and an assisted block to help build an 11-5 lead. Again, Queen terrorized Smoky down the stretch, pouring five points into a 25-13 win.
Franklin carried their momentum into the third set, jumping out to a 12-4 lead behind three points from Rios and two from McCall Sanders. For the third straight set, Queen led her team over the finish line, posting four points including three straight kills to help clinch the match 25-12.
After routing the host team, two nights later the Panthers returned to Sylva for the tournament’s marquee matchup. After twice losing narrowly to Franklin this regular season, North Henderson upset West Henderson 3-1 in the semis, advancing to the final in search of revenge on the first-place Panthers.
The Knights stayed neck-and-neck with Franklin to start the match, trailing 13-11 despite five early points from Queen. Up 21-16 following back-to-back kills from Rios, the Panthers stood on the cusp of a first-set win, but North answered with a furious comeback to force match point, up 24-22.
After a Franklin timeout, Queen sparked her team’s offense once again, landing a well-placed tip behind blockers in the middle of the Knight defense. North simply squandered their lead from there, committing errors on the final three points to drop the set 26-24.
Queen kept rolling into the second set, adding four more points to help put her team up 14-8. The Knights soon responded in kind though, winning nine of the next 12 points to tie both teams at 17.
The set turned into a dogfight from there, with three straight kills from Queen creating a 22-22 dead heat. North turned the tables from the previous set however, claiming the last three points to take the set 25-22.
The Knights carried their momentum into Set 3, winning eight of the first 10 points to force a Panther timeout. Franklin righted the ship after the break though, knotting the set at 15 behind four points from Queen and two apiece from Bowles and McKayla Sanders.
As she’s done all season, Queen came through in the biggest moments for Franklin, posting two straight kills to keep her team in the set, 23-21. North took the final two points however, taking the lead in the match two sets to one.
Franklin nearly matched North point-for-point to start Set 4, trailing just 11-9 thanks to two Queen kills and two blocks from Ryan Green. Slowly, the Knights pulled away however, claiming the set 25-17 to cement a tournament title. Following a quick vote by coaches after the final, Queen and McKayla Sanders were named to the conference All-Tournament team.
“We were prepared for North, but I thought North played exceptionally well,” said Brooks. “They made a lot of quick sets and we adjusted to that, but the one girl on the outside hit 1,000 times better than the two games before. ... At first we weren’t getting to the blocks, and then when we were, when I went back and watched on film, it was more that they were hitting over the blocks. They had some great timing and we dug up a lot of crap and played hard; we just gave them too much. Against a really good team like that, you can’t give them so many points and expect to win those games.”
The team had little time to dwell on the loss to North, with just two more days to prepare for the start of the State Playoffs. Entering the tournament as the fourth-ranked team in the 3A West, Franklin had earned the right to host multiple matches on Tom Raby Court, provided that they got past No. 29 East Rowan Oct. 21. After a closely-contested first set, the Panthers did just that.
“That first game was tight, but I expected it to be,” said Brooks of Franklin’s razor-thin 25-23 win in Set 1. “They were coming in on kind of a high and we were on a high, but being at home we were a little more comfortable. I think we played a little too safe in the first game, and we just weren’t doing some of the things that we normally do. We were a little timid and not wanting to show people what we can really do, but in the second and third games we took care of business.”
After narrowly escaping Set 1, the Panthers looked like themselves from there, doubling up the Mustangs 25-12 in Set 2 and taking the third set 25-17. In a second-round match with 13th-ranked Hickory after press time Oct. 24, Brooks said they had a chance to do what no Panther team has done in more than a decade.
“We haven’t won a second-round game since 2011, so we’ll see what we can do,” she said of the match at FHS. “[Hickory] are really good. They’re young but they’re very athletic, and they do have some experience with the few that are seniors. They’re scrappy, they’re not gonna let balls drop, they’re tough, and we’ve just got to be us.”