Lady Knights rally against 4A program; secure 1st win of season
Robbinsville – Somebody forgot to tell the Lady Knights that 2-0 deficits do not often play in their favor.
In a complete flip of the script from last year’s lingering storyline, Robbinsville fell behind 2-0 in Tuesday’s home match against the Asheville Lady Cougars, before rattling off a pair of dominant set wins to force a tiebreaker. Not to be denied, the Lady Knights erupted in jubilation after senior Aubrie Wachacha delivered a thunderous kill that closed out the epic comeback: 25-22, 27-25, 15-25, 13-25, 13-15.
The win served as a nice response to the woes faced Monday, when Franklin visited and handed Robbinsville a 23-25, 26-24, 25-15, 25-17, season-opening loss.
All things considered, head coach Kadey Phillips believes the first two matches have gone quite smoothly.
“I was very pleased with how we played against Franklin,” Phillips said after Tuesday’s victory. “We have yet to have a full week with everybody here at practice; we’ve had girls still on vacation and other commitments. We really didn’t know how this week was going to start off and I was pleasantly surprised. I thought we played very well together; they were hustling, talking and moving – doing all the things we asked of them.”
“Today started off a little differently – but that’s to be expected. It’s just the second game. For them to be able to come back after a two-set loss and win it out, I can’t ask for much more than that. I think this is definitely a good start to the season.”
Indeed, the two matches could not have contrasted each other more definitively. The back-and-forth tussle in set one against Franklin displayed a Robbinsville team that was fired up for the season and it seemed that the Knights were on their way to a 2-0 advantage by reaching a 20-24 threshold.
But the Panthers rallied by rattling off six consecutive points to stun the hosts. To its credit, Franklin had some tough components to deal with throughout the night, so perhaps inexperience and first-match jitters prevailed when tasked against Emma Ledford’s serves – which gave the Knights’ back row fits throughout the contest; plus a stout combo of Ryan Green and Talley Kinsland providing solid blocks up front to alter the outcome.
Robbinsville was also dealt a huge blow early in set four, as junior middle hitter Claire Barlow – last year’s Smoky Mountain Conference leader in blocks – was injured on a dive. Barlow returned later in the set, bandaged up after biting through her lower lip and into her chin on the play, and reported for duty Tuesday.
But in her absence, Franklin sprinted away with the match by piecing together a 10-2 run.
Tuesday’s comeback bid was the first time Robbinsville had rallied from a 2-0 deficit since Sept. 26, when the Lady Knights thundered back to defeat Smoky Mountain 25-23, 27-25, 14-25, 22-25, 11-15. That win was a rarity for last year’s team, which struggled to close out matches after taking 2-0 leads (Robbinsville was 1-4 when pushed to five sets in 2022).
The Cougars looked on-par with the Knights in the first two sets Tuesday. Tika Hamel and Ryann Marsh were a force up front for Asheville, while Rosalie Sharp and Gabby Rollins delivered serves that were too much to handle.
Neither set was dominant, though and it might be difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when Robbinsville finally shifted into a higher gear, but the effects were quickly felt regardless. Wachacha’s serves across both nights kept the visitors on their toes, win or lose; Barlow, Delaney Brooms and Liz Carpenter began to display a better average on front-line reads; setter Ryn Hooper saved a few tough volleys for the Lady Knights; and libero Suri Watty channeled the energy in set four to power off a 9-0 run that extended the Knights’ lead to 11-20.
Set five matched the expectations each tie-breaking set does: after 2-plus hours of volleyball, you do not want to end up in the loss column.
“We need to work on some more offensive options,” added Phillips. “We’ve harped all summer on serve-receive and defense, and we’ve actually done very well with that these past two games.
“A lot of what we need to work on is really that this is a new group of girls needing to get used to playing with one another. We have finally pinpointed a rotation; we just need to get into a groove.”
Junior varsity
In their first two matches, the next crop of Lady Knight superstars displayed some of the same characteristics as their varsity counterparts – namely, the desire to never give up.
But Robbinsville (0-2) could not capture the elusive victory in either outing this week, dropping a 25-8, 25-21 decision to Franklin; and a 3-set heartbreaker to Asheville: 25-14, 23-25, 19-17.