New Kent celebrates Senior Night with five-set thriller triumph over Bruton

New Kent’s Courtney Carter (15) focuses on how to tap the ball over the outstretched arms of Bruton’s Aliyah Millner (11).

Robb Johnson photo

Senior Night’s have a lot of meaning, especially for graduating classes and their families. For New Kent’s Lady Trojans’ volleyball team, their Oct. 26 Senior Night contest against the visiting Bruton Lady Panthers provided both thrills and chills.

New Kent defeated Bruton 25-13, 20-25, 22-25, 27-25, 15-10 in a five-set Bay Rivers District match-up to close out the regular season with a win, positioning themselves for a postseason home court game.

The hosts had to utilize strategy dealing with the height of the visiting Lady Panthers. Twins Jolie and Mina Faw, along with Cassie Hall, all stood 5’11” or taller as they guarded the net. Instead, the Lady Trojans attacked the back line, using serves from Evie Davenport to spark a run. The first set ended with New Kent’s Courtney Carter executing a kill, providing the hosts the first advantage of the night.

Bruton started to come alive in the following frames. In the second set, the height of Bruton’s frontline deflected several scoring attempts by the hosts. In the third set, Bruton jumped out to an 8-2 lead before New Kent halted the run after an Abby McLaughlin ace. A kill by Jolie Faw and an additional one by Hall provided the Lady Panthers with a 20-18 advantage. From there, Bruton setter Julianna Simon faked a set-up for a spike, pushing the ball over the net quickly to fool the hosts and give the visitors a 2-1 set advantage.

In the fourth set, both teams battled back and forth. With the score knotted at 23 apiece, Lady Trojans’ Leah Rounds’ spike went out of bounds, giving match point to Bruton. But Rounds rebounded, converting a kill to tie the game on the next series. The effort resulted in Bruton committing an error on the next play, providing an advantage to the hosts. From there, Fallon Greenawalt would convert one of her 23 kills of the night, tying the match up at two apiece and sending the contest into a race to 15 points.

New Kent’s momentum continued in the final stanza, jumping out to an 8-3 lead over the Lady Panthers. The push continued as both teams exchanged points over the next few moments. With New Kent sitting on match point at 14-10, a kill by the returning Lexi Powell provided the clinching point for the hosts.

New Kent completes their regular season campaign with a record of 12-11.