By Tabitha Evans Moore | EDITOR & PUBLISHER
LYNCHBURG — It’s Monday afternoon at Moore County High School. Outside the football team sweats it out on the practice field preparing for this Friday’s home opener against Cascade. Inside the girls of fall, the Raiderettes Volleyball Team, face off with the AAA Franklin County High School Rebellette — a team they’ve never defeated.
Based on the intensity of the JV game, you can already tell the match will be fierce. The two squads don’t necessarily dislike each other but both seem locked in on the win. As they face one another at the net, you can tell both are all business.
The Raiderettes play tough from the opening serve. Not 30 seconds in, their physicality shows as Reason Brown and Whitney Fanning dive for a dig – both hitting the floor in hustle plays to keep the rally alive.
Several serves later, a Raiderette sails a ball just over the net in between to Lady Rebels then a collective “ace” cheer fills the gym as the home team celebrates.
Moore County and Franklin County traded rallies early, but the Rebelettes pulled ahead to win the first set, 25–17.
In the second set, Franklin County got up by three points, then Feather Reevis broke the scoring streak with another ace. Moore County clawed back to tie it 16–16, fueled by Gracelyn Gray’s finesse at the net, where she kept slipping tips past the Rebelettes’ defense.
At the 23-20 mark, you could see Moore County begin to feel the momentum as they danced in between serves. Reevis hit another quality serve just inside the back line to set up the set point then Franklin County hit a ball out of bounds to give the Raiderettes the set.
In the third set, the Rebelettes managed an early lead before Moore County began to fight back. They led by as much as four points for the first several minutes, then Maddie Sparkman, Reevis, and Rian Ross managed points to tie the set 12-12.
The two teams went point-for-point for the next minute or so, then an ace by Kennedie Teters and a return between two Rebelettes by Brooklyn Hernandez gave Moore County a three-point lead.
Then, a Franklin County server let the adrenaline get the best of her and knocked the ball out of bounds. Gracelyn Gray put down a kill just out of reach to set up the final set point – giving Moore County a two set lead.
Franklin County fought back in what felt like a disastrous fourth set for Moore County. The Rebellettes jumped out to an early lead and tied the match with a resounding 25-6 set.
Undaunted, the ladies in Columbia blue fought back in the final 15-point set. After giving the Rebellettes a point on a bad serve, Reevis and Hernandez pieced together back-to-back points while Gray made an impressive block at the net. Moore County won the final set 15-11 and the match 3-2.
Following the upset, Raiderettes Head Coach Courtney Hardin said she felt incredibly proud of her team’s grit.
“We’ve never beaten this team,” she said. “That team came in here knowing that they were gonna beat us. Our girls showed up – especially Kennedy Teters our back row extraordinaire.”
Raiderettes lone senior Whitney Fanning echoed Coach Hardin’s remarks.
“It feels good to play in front on a supportive home crowd,” she said. “I’m just so proud of everyone. We came back from a pretty awful fourth set to win.”
Monday’s game was the Raiderettes second home victory so far this season. They’ll try to keep the momentum alive Tuesday at Fayetteville and Thursday at Culleoka. •
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