Andrew Jackson volleyball claws back in third set but falls in 2A state championship
Andrew Jackson grabbed an early lead in the match’s third set in a last-second attempt to change the tides of Thursday night and bring a volleyball state championship back to Kershaw for the first time in 29 years — but its final push wasn’t enough.
The Volunteers, supported by a sea of orange pom-pom waving fans, fell to Chesnee in straight sets (25-7, 25-12, 25-17) in the 2A state championship game at Dutch Fork High School in Irmo.
The team from Kershaw, S.C., in Lancaster County was playing for its third volleyball state championship in program history.
“It took us a while, but they came back,” head coach John Verdugo told The Herald postgame. “And granted we had created a very deep hole, but I say this all the time: We much prefer going down swinging than just going down and laying there, so I think we did a good job of doing our best to get back in the fight.”
Chesnee scored 14 of the first set’s final 15 points, a statement that reverberated throughout the rest of the match, Verdugo said. The Volunteers didn’t look settled in until the third set — but by then, Chesnee was playing with a championship confidence and a championship will that couldn’t be denied.
“I haven’t experienced that with my girls,” Verdugo said. The coach took a timeout four points into the match to calm his team down after a 0-4 start. “That was the first time they looked a bit overwhelmed. I mean we’ve played Rock Hill, Northwestern in tournaments, and we didn’t have that response. But for some reason it just wasn’t our night.”
The Volunteers were led by a pair of juniors, middle blocker Lexi Roberson and outside hitter Olivia Gandy, on Thursday night — just like they had been all season.
Roberson has led the team in kills and blocks and Gandy has led the team in digs the past three seasons. The two combined for 10 kills, a bulk of the team’s 36 total points scored in the state final.
“I think that just sets up the team for more success, at least for the next year to come,” Verdugo said. “The two of them are such strong volleyball players, such strong personalities. They want to win, and that desire to win really impacts the players around them. You know, in a good way, they demand everybody to rise up.”
The Volunteers were without their senior captain Caroline Wrenn, who was out due to an injury she suffered in the second round of the state playoffs. She still admirably led on the sidelines, Verdugo said.
After the match, amid a well-earned celebration, Chesnee head coach Katie Jolley told reporters that Andrew Jackson showed a lot of fight on Thursday night. The Eagles defeated North Central in the Upper State championship game — a team that had defeated Andrew Jackson twice in the regular season.
“I told (my players), ‘Everybody is here for a reason,’” Jolley said when asked about how she kept her team focused heading into the the match against Andrew Jackson. “They played well. They are a great team. So I told them, ‘Everybody’s here for a reason. You have to play your best as well.’”
This was Andrew Jackson’s first trip to the state finals in seven years and it could’ve been its first state title win in nearly 30 years, when the team defeated Bishop England in 1991.
This story was originally published November 5, 2020 at 10:03 PM.
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