New Kent High School Lady Trojans’ volleyball finish as Group 3A state runners-up
New Kent High School's Lady Trojans receive their medals and state runner-up trophy after finishing the season at 12-3.Robb Johnson photos
For most of the season, New Kent’s Lady Trojans volleyball team have either overwhelmed opponents or lost very close, competitive matches against them. With a state title on the line Friday night and the rare occasion where a team has the opportunity to host a state championship, the visiting Lady Trojans hoped a trip to the visiting Rustburg Lady Red Devils would result in another trophy being hoisted above their heads.
Instead, the youthful Lady Trojans ran into a team that was hungry for its first championship since 1992 in Rustburg. The result was the hosting Lady Red Devils sweep of New Kent as the visitors fell 12-25, 14-25, 13-25 to finish as the Group 3A state runners-up.
In the first set, New Kent faced roadblocks in Rustburg’s Katie Hardie and Parker Goldstein. Hardie’s aggressive attacks at the net rattled the visitors in the opening set, while Goldstein’s block of Lady Trojan Julia Hathaway launched the hosts to a quick 12-3 lead. New Kent responded with a 4-0 run highlighted by Haley Baker’s kill, but another Hardie kill and an ace by Rustburg’s Meah Coles captured the opening set for the Lady Red Devils.
New Kent’s first lead of the match came at the very beginning oof the second set after a service error by Rustburg. But the mistake failed to deter the hosts as they strung together the next six points. Hathaway’s kill and Aubrey Hyndshaw’s spike and scores cut the lead to three (7-4) before Rustburg orchestrated its next run. Despite New Kent’s Clara Foster connecting on an ace to launch an additional momentum swing for the visitors, the Lady Red Devils did not falter or budge, scoring the final three points of the second frame to take a 2-0 match advantage.
The snowball effect factored into New Kent’s play, as Rustburg raced out 10-0 in the third stanza. New Kent fought back, as Darian Mason’s ace along with a pair from Sophie McLaughlin assisted in cutting the margin down to seven (16-9). That deficit remained the same until Rustburg’s Anna Maddow delivered a kill that launched a 5-0 run to increase the hosts’ lead to a dozen (23-11). From there, a Hardie kill would conclude capturing the state title for Rustburg as New Kent’s Lady Trojans closed out the season 12-3 and as state runners-up.
As Lady Trojans emotions of disappointment showed on their face and body, New Kent Head Coach Cynthia Burnett could only compliment the play of Rustburg.
“I do not know if we could have done anything different as they had hitters over us and around us,” she commented. “For us, it was much more powerful that we are used to seeing.
“Number one [Katie Hardie] was just incredible,” Burnett continued. “They had no weaknesses. Serving, passing, hitting, and digging, they were prepared.”
As for her team, Burnett praised her team and understood the emotions they were experiencing at the moment.
“We told the girls that we had a great season and do not let this loss at the end of the season define their season,” the head coach said. “Tomorrow, things will not seem so bad. We have everyone coming back next year so we have a lot to look forward to. We just ran into a superior team and we knew it was going to be tough.
“But our expectation for next season is to be back and take it to the next level and get the bigger trophy,” Burnett concluded.
New Kent’s Aubrey Hyndshaw (8) is a fraction too late on a block attempt against Rustburg’s Katie Hardie.