Robbinsville senior achieves career benchmark
Robbinsville – Just two days after her older sister hit a coaching milestone, Kensley Phillips found her own way into the annals of Lady Knights volleyball history.
Kadey Phillips recorded her 100th career win as head coach of the Lady Knights at Swain County on Sept. 27. Skip ahead to Sept. 29 and amidst a frantic, 5-set battle at Cherokee, Kensley tallied career dig No. 1,000. She is believed to be the first Robbinsville volleyball player in history to reach the mark.
The program took the time to pause Oct. 6’s home match with Andrews after Kensley recorded her first dig of the contest to acknowledge the feat and surprised the senior outside hitter with gifts to help commemorate the moment after the Andrews match concluded. It was the first time Robbinsville had played at home since she passed the checkpoint.
Even more impressive is that Kensley did not play back row her freshman year and only had 14 matches to begin the run in 2020, due to COVID shortening the season.
All told, Kensley raced to the mark in a scant 56 matches.
“I’ve been keeping up with it since my sophomore year, because it’s been a goal since my freshman year,” Kensley said. “I knew I’d be creeping up on it this year, but I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do it.
“It really was a big accomplishment for me.”
A “dig” in volleyball is when a ball is attacked by the opponent and the other team has to properly defend by preventing the ball from hitting the floor. This normally occurs via a squatted, two-armed, underhanded bump, but depending on the ball’s velocity and break, may have to adjust to something as simple as a quick push to keep a volley alive. Digs cannot be recorded off direct serves, as successful contact on a service is counted as a “reception.”
For the remainder of the volley, however, digs are fair game.
She added that she is roughly 70 receptions away from 1,000, if you are keeping score at home.
Kensley leaped straight to the varsity ranks after entering high school, but playing time was scarce her freshman season. The 2019 season featured Robbinsville winning both its first Smoky Mountain Conference title and tournament, posting a 25-3 record and reaching the fourth round of the state playoffs.
Looking back now, Kensley acknowledges that the year away from heavy repetitions on the back row was a challenge to overcome.
“I still practiced back row, somewhat, but not as much as I would have if I had been playing it,” Kensley said of her first varsity season. “I was definitely out-of-practice before my sophomore year, so I expected to do really, really bad. But I picked it right back up and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.”
Another teammate received a trophy and special recognition for a separate stat accomplishment last year, which opened Kensley’s eyes to the potential of her farewell campaign.
“(Former setter) Ally (Ayers) got her 1,000th assist last year and I was thinking, ‘That’s a thing?,’” Kensley recalled. “I knew after seeing that, I had to get this record.
“I have put in a lot of extra work. After practice, someone will set Kadey and she will just nail the ball to me, over and over. She’s stayed an hour, hour and a half after practice and just hit to me. She’s helped me a lot with it and encouraged me.”
"I am super proud of Kensley," Kadey added. "For her to get to 1,000 digs is a very big accomplishment. She has led our team for the past two years in digs and her stats are outstanding. She is everywhere on the court and for her to get so many digs – as an outside hitter – is a huge feat.
"Most of the time, you see those kind of stats from liberos who play defense in all six rotations. Kensley only plays defense for three rotations and still manages to outperform most defensive specialists."
Title hunt
The Lady Knights were finally able to return home after a lengthy road trip Oct. 6, sweeping Andrews (2-15, 0-9) in a 12-25, 19-25, 17-25 contest.
Robbinsville (14-7, 7-2) then fanned Hayesville (11-9, 3-6) to the tune of 21-25, 14-25, 25-27 set scores Tuesday.
Wedged between the conference wins was a heartbreaking 5-set loss to Franklin (14-7) on Monday. The Knights dashed to 26-24, 25-17 wins in the opening two segments, before the 3A Panthers rallied to take the match on victories of 22-25, 21-25, 9-15.
Robbinsville enters the final regular-season match against Swain County (11-9, 3-6) at 6 p.m. today in a three-way tie with Murphy (18-3, 7-2) and Cherokee (15-6, 7-2) for first place in the division.
The Bulldogs and Braves are pitted against one another in their respective finales today, meaning the Lady Knights have to best the Lady Devils on Robbinsville’s senior night to ensure a share of the Smoky Mountain Conference championship.
“We’re working on things,” Kensley said of the team. “A lot of the girls have been sick and out. But going forward, we have a lot of things solved. We come across some small things now and then that we need to work on, but I think – as a whole – we’re ready (for the postseason).
“I think we’re close to our peak, but we’re not there yet.”
As alluded to, Robbinsville had to re-configure its usual line-up against Andrews, as setter Desta Trammell was out with an illness. With no other varsity setter as a back-up, the Knights called on junior-varsity setter Olivia Lewis to fill the void in the sweep over the Lady Wildcats.
Kensley has waited to be the elder player on the floor. Now that she’s in that role, she flourishes as a mentor to the next few years of Lady Knights players that are making an impact – no matter their grade level.
Of note, sophomore middle hitter Claire Barlow is leading the conference in blocks; sophomore outside hitter Liz Carpenter is becoming more accurate – and therefore, more dangerous – when attacking the ball; junior middle hitter Aubrie Wachacha has been dominant on both front-line offense and defense; freshman libero Suri Watty has seamlessly transitioned to the varsity level; and junior veteran Delaney Brooms continues to rattle off kills that often leave nothing but a vapor trail for opponents to flail at.
“Suri has been outstanding to me,” Kensley observed. “I didn’t get to play back row as a freshman, so for her to be the starting libero is crazy. She wasn’t even here for tryouts; she was just thrown in after asking if she could play. She has played so awesome.”
Down the stretch in set three Tuesday, the future stars shined bright. Robbinsville trailed 24-20 against the Lady Jackets, after dictating much of sets one and two. Kadey Phillips called a timeout and uttered a now-familiar phrase to the players: “Be a David” – a nod to the infamous Old Testament.
Kensley explained after the game that the team has adopted the phrase as its unofficial motto, with one player being awarded the distinction of “Being a David” after each match, for encouraging and battling to the very end.
Those three words lit a fire under the Knights on Tuesday. Barlow muscled three kills into Hayesville territory soon thereafter, assisted Brooms with a block and Wachacha fired off a shot during the tiebreaker sequence that the Jackets were unable to even swat at.
“Our blocking numbers have always been the lowest of the low,” said Kensley. “Normally, we only have 2-3 a game, but Claire – and even Aubrie – have been pulling out a ton of good blocks.”
JV, middle school
Robbinsville (6-12) split its junior-varsity bill this week, sweeping Andrews 15-25, 16-25 on Oct. 6, but falling 25-9, 25-9 to Hayesville on Tuesday.
The middle school Lady Knights dropped a 20-25, 25-16, 16-14 match to Andrews. Final set scores were not received for the Hayesville match by Wednesday’s press deadline.
Prior to the Hayesville contest, Robbinsville was 5-5 in middle-school matches this year.