Telegraph Staff Writer
It could’ve been 100 degrees inside the Union County High School gymnasium on Oct. 21, and Sabrena Howard still would’ve had goosebumps.
She and fellow seniors Maegan Beatty and Caleigh Avery celebrated a championship in their final season, with the UCHS volleyball team defeating Newberry 3-2 (15-25, 25-14, 25-22, 19-25, 15-11) to win the District 7-1A title.
“Considering it’s my last year, it feels surreal,” Howard said. “I feel like I’m going to wake up tomorrow, and none of it’s going to be true. It’s crazy. I have chills.”
The Tigers, the tournament’s top seed, scored three straight points with Howard serving to close out the match. Jaycee Davis provided the exclamation point with a kill for the winning point.
Playing for district championships is nothing new for Union (14-8). The Tigers played for titles the last two seasons and have reached the district championship match eight times in the past 11 years. However, Union hadn’t won a title since 2017, the season the Tigers finished as the Class 1A state runner-up.
“Tonight really just showed their tenacity,” Union Head Coach Jordan Windham said. “They’ve been excited all day. It’s been an exciting week for them. This was a game they were amped and ready for.
“We knew it was going to be hard. We knew it was going to be tough. It was a hard-fought game against them. We knew coming in that we’d have to work really hard.”
In Class 1A the regional playoffs don’t begin until Tuesday, Nov. 2, which prompted Howard to say, “I’m very excited that we have a week off. I don’t know if I could handle another game right now. I’m exhausted.”
What Nov. 2 will bring is a rematch of the District 7 championship match as the Tigers, the number-two seed in Region 4, will host third-seed Newberry (17-10) in a 7 p.m. match. Each region in Class 1A is composed of four teams from two districts. The two district champs are seeded first and second. District 8 champ Pierson Taylor (20-3) earned the number-one seed.
Two at-large teams are selected for each region based upon rankings. Newberry was the third-ranked team in the region behind Taylor and Union, which results in the upcoming rematch between the Tigers and the Panthers. Williston (8-10) earned the fourth seed and will play Taylor on Nov. 2.
If the Tigers defeat Newberry on Nov. 2, they’ll play for the Region 4 championship on Saturday, Nov. 6, at 7 p.m. They would travel to play Taylor or host Williston.
The Region 4 semifinal match between Union and Newberry, if the District 7 championship match is any indication, should be a back-and-forth affair, with momentum constantly switching sides.
The Panthers took a 7-1 lead in the first set after scoring five points with Abby Pace serving. Union’s Davis recorded kills three times to make it a three-point game, but the Tigers could never get any closer. It was 18-15 when Newberry closed the set out with seven straight points. Most of those points came off back-row errors in receiving serves by Hanna Templeton.
It was a different story in the second set as the Tigers never trailed after building a 10-5 lead. A kill by Davis and two kills by Howard helped Union take that early lead.
“We didn’t start off too hot,” Howard said, “but I think when we came back in the second set, we didn’t let the first set affect us. We put it behind us. It was a new set. It was a new day.
“We had to get stuff done. We meant business.”
The Tigers led 19-13 in the second set before scoring three points with Jurney Crim serving. It was 22-14 with Newbery serving when Howard recorded a kill to force side-out. Union then recorded two points with Howard serving to close out the set, with the winning point coming off a Davis kill.
“After that first set, we had to make some adjustments,” Windham said, adding, “They had no problems doing that. They were ready to go. They knew what they had to do to make it happen.”
Union’s strong play in the second set carried over into the third. Two Davis kills during a four-point stretch with Beatty serving put the Tigers up 5-1. The Tigers never lost the lead, but Newberry gradually cut into it. It was 24-20 when the Panthers’ Pace recorded a kill to force side-out. With Kirsten Thomas serving, Newberry got a kill from Faith Wilson to make it a two-point game. Davis, as she did in the second set, scored the winning point for the Tigers on a kill.
The Tigers scored the first point of the fourth set, but Newberry blocked a Davis attack to go up 2-1. The Panthers never relinquished their lead. They led 14-9 before scoring five points with Pace serving. Wilson’s play was key during that stretch as she blocked an attack by Addyson Worrell and recorded another point off a tip.
Union made it a 21-16 game, with Davis and Howard each recording a kill with Worrell serving. Howard later blocked an attack by Alexis Boyd with Crim serving to make the score 23-18, but Boyd later blocked an attack by Howard to force side-out. The Tigers were able to score another point on a kill by Howard before the Panthers won by six points.
Howard had a couple of kills in the early stages of the fifth set. The Tigers led 11-8 after scoring two points with Crim serving, but Newberry scored three straight points to tie it up, getting two points off kills by Tiller and Chloe Jones.
Beatty scored a point off a dump with Howard serving to put Union up 13-11. A Newberry error followed, putting the Tigers one point away from victory, which they earned off Davis’ kill.
It was the fourth straight win for the Tigers and their seventh win in the last eight matches.
“This program the last four years has really been rebuilding and trying to get to a point where we were ready for that district championship,” Windham said, adding, “This year, everything’s coming together. The stars are aligning. We are hitting our stride at the right time.”
The work isn’t finished, though. Howard said she and her teammates were going to spend the week off before the regional semifinal match improving their game.
“Anything we need to work on,” Howard said. “We’re going to take this match and learn from it.”
Official stats from the win over Newberry weren’t available at the time this story was posted.
The Tigers advanced to the championship match by defeating Hilliard 3-0 (25-11, 25-14, 25-21) in the Oct. 19 semifinals. Howard had 15 kills, 12 digs and four aces, while Davis had nine kills, 11 digs and seven aces. Avery had seven digs and six kills, while Crim had 18 digs. Beatty recorded 32 assists to go along with four aces.
