Lady Knights reach Sweet 16 of playoffs
Robbinsville – Success does not come overnight.
It takes a lot of groundwork, long hours in the gym and countless days of practice on off-days.
So naturally, when a team has played together since third grade, success is bound to happen.
With a pair of back-to-back wins over Bradford Preparatory School (25-15, 25-10, 25-11) and Rosman (20-25, 25-23, 25-18, 25-23) in the respective first and second-rounds of the state playoffs out of the way, the No. 1-seeded Robbinsville Lady Knights (22-2) are now back in the the third round of the postseason, a feat not achieved since head coach Kadey Phillips was a freshman player for the Knights.
“I think it’s great,” Phillips said of Robbinsville’s trek thus far. “In 2009, we were a really close team. We had a lot of young players, like we do now.
“It all comes down to playing together. It takes a unit; bump, set, spike just to score one point. That’s what we did back then and that’s what we’ve got to do right now.”
Up next in the march to state is an all-too-familiar adversary: Murphy (No. 9 seed, 21-3). Robbinsville has taken 2-out-of-3 from the Lady Bulldogs this season and got the top seed in the state by sweeping Murphy in the Smoky Mountain Conference tournament finals Oct. 23: 25-23, 25-21, 25-22.
“If we come out with the same mentality as we did last time, we’ll be alright,” Phillips said.
The Knights went on a 12-0 run in set three of Saturday’s playoff opener against Bradford Prep (No. 32 seed, 11-13) with Halee Anderson serving, opening up a 13-1 lead in the process.
Combined with the strong blocking and hitting of Karlyn Matheson, Bradford Prep posed little threat in the final set.
A familiar foe visited Graham County for round two Tuesday night. Rosman (12-10, No. 16 seed) fell to Robbinsville during the regular season in seven combined sets, but handed the Knights their first segment loss since Oct. 15 by winning set one, 25-20.
The Lady Tigers had a strong attack up front, bolstered by some solid hits by Ashley Hoxit and Josie Chappell and sound defense by the same duo. Robbinsville struggled with communication woes during several volleys and it proved costly in the closing moments.
The Lady Knights would rally from a 13-8 deficit in set two to tie the segment at 17-all. The stanza was hard-fought, but Robbinsville got some of its swagger back by winning the set.
The momentum from set two carried over, as the Knights ran away with a 17-9 lead in set three, aided immensely by an 8-0 run that featured Kennedy Cable serving and some strong work at the net by Matheson, Kensley Phillips and Yeika Jimenez. Cable and Ally Ayers both continued her solid role as a workhorse all over the court, something that was not lost on Coach Phillips.
“I thought Kennedy did phenomenal on her defense tonight,” Phillips said. “Ally (Ayers) really stepped it up when we switched to a 6-2 and had her set some.”
More smart gameplay by Liz Ayers, Karcee Dooley and Gracye Burchfield in set four gave the Knights the edge as the match wrapped up.
“We struggled with communicating and running our defense well, but we stayed with it,” Phillips said. “We’ve had some tough games recently and it’s hard to keep that strong mentality up.”