Fuquay-Varina rolls in volleyball playoffs against Sanderson
Fuquay-Varina swept Sanderson 3-0 (25-17, 25-15, 25-16) in the first round of the NCHSAA playoffs to continue setting a school record for the most wins Saturday.
The Bengals (19-3) came onto the court strong the first two sets and only trailed once in the second set. Sanderson (13-8) struggled to match trio junior Nora Smith and senior twins Maddie and Morgan Sonnendecker who accounted for 19 kills.
“The first win is always the rough one,” Fuquay-Varina coach Jeff Pagel said. “We had a week off, so I was worried we were going to come out flat. We came out the way we finished the regular season. We came out strong. The defense looked good and the offense looked great.”
The Spartans organized their defense to rally back in the third set and ran out to quick 5-0 lead before Fuquay rallied back.
“A lot of the points we gave up today for because of lack of communication,” Pagel said. “Game three has always been the monkey on our back as far as we go up two games and in game three, we just play lazy and Sanderson came out of the gate. They wanted to win, and we didn’t want it.”
Spartans coach Pam Tart said her team has a hard time keeping motivated when they are losing.
“Whenever we are behind, we have to learn to jump back up and build ourselves back up – whether that is something simple or something great,” Tart said.
Sophomore Sydney Koch said this affected their chances of making a comeback.
“Our physical game was good, but our mental game wasn’t there,” Koch said. “If we got down on a play, we would carry it into the next plays.”
Although Sanderson didn’t make it to the next round, the team is looking forward to next year, especially since the team is majority underclassmen, and this was the Spartans’ first appearance in the playoffs in five years.
“They never had that experience,” Tart said. “They have never experienced when a game is on the line and how it is suppose to go. They got that experience this year and now they know what that feels like, so they will be able to build off of that.”
Koch said it was their goal to make it to the playoffs, and after accomplishing it, they can set a higher goal for next season.
“Last year, we didn’t make it at all, so that was our goal this year coming in,” Koch said. “I am just really excited to make it here. My mindset is in next year already. I think we can make it again and do better than we did this year.”
Fuquay-Varina is looking forward to hosting Person, a 3-0 winner at West Johnston, on Tuesday. The second round has been a challenge for the Bengals in past years.
“I’m not scared,” Smith said. “I’m excited. Since we have been in high school we haven’t been past the second round of playoffs and we are going to see how far we can get again.”
This story was originally published October 24, 2015 at 8:50 PM with the headline "Fuquay-Varina rolls in volleyball playoffs against Sanderson."