Charles City Lady Panthers’ volleyball wins first game in six years, sweeps Carver Academy in straight sets

Charles City's Taniyah Williams gets underneath the ball to execute a perfect bump.

Robb Johnson photo

Sometimes success comes from patience and persevering through adversity and tough challenges. When the opportunity arrived for Charles City’s Lady Panthers in a Sept. 13 volleyball contest, they pounced their way to the winning side of the scoreboard.

Charles City swept the visiting Carver Lady Wolverines 25-11, 25-18, 25-9 to win its first volleyball contest of the season. The win is also the school’s first win in the sport since 2016, with the last one coming against George Wythe on Oct. 10, 2016.

In the first set, Charles City led 12-8 before Janiya Washington took the helm to serve. She executed back-to-back aces, followed by leading the charge on the next three scores. After Carver failed to convert on their serves, Lady Panther Cheyenne Christian notched three consecutive aces, with teammate Surayyah Tinsley’s ace marking the team’s first set win of the season.

In the next frame, both teams began to have lackluster performances, but it was Charles City who took advantage of timely mistakes. The Lady Panthers positioned the ball to where Carver could not return it. From there, the hosts held on to win the frame by three points.

The third set saw the Lady Panthers jump out to a huge 14-1 advantage. Winding down, Charles City’s Samiyah Jones converted four aces in a row to up the hosts’ lead by 17 (20-3). After a few additional exchanges, it was sophomore Taniyah Williams’ back-to-back aces that clinched the final points of the match and the win for the Lady Panthers.

After the contest, Charles City Lady Panthers’ Head Coach Lillani Adkins spoke about her pleasure with the team’s performance.

“It was obvious that they improved, but more importantly they believed in themselves,” the victorious head coach said. “They are controlling the ball a lot better, and they are improving on fundamentals.

“They are finding their niche, so it goes to show what happens when you actually believe in yourself,” Adkins concluded.

With the win, Charles City improves to 1-5 on the season.