Carson volleyball. Brian Wilhite photo.

By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

CHINA GROVE — Carson volleyball got its biggest win in a long time on Tuesday night, with the pounding right fists of Reese Joyner, Tasean Perkins and Katy Falkowski making a powerful statement in a 25-23, 25-13 and 25-17 victory over previously unbeaten Lake Norman Charter.

Setter Rylee Hedrick orchestrated a surprising sweep in a matchup of teams that were 7 and 8 in the 3A West RPI rankings, and the Cougars, most notably libero Kaylee Thonen, dug everything the Knights could send at them.

Thonen made digs on her knees, on her back, on her tummy and running into the bleachers. It was a match played at high level, with brutal spikes being answered by equally breathtaking digs.

“We played really good defense, and Kaylee always leads our defense,” long-time Carson coach Kelan Rogers said. “And Chloe Webster had a tremendous night on the back row. I don’t remember her making an error.”

Carson (18-5, 12-1)  tied the Knights (16-1, 13-1) for first place in the South Piedmont Conference. It’s likely they’ll meet for a third time in the conference tournament championship game to decide which team will be seeded as the SPC’s “1” for the 3A state playoffs.

Before that happens, however, both squads have more matches to take care of. Carson has three left in the regular season, including one against a good South Rowan squad that dropped a feverish, five-set match to East Rowan on Tuesday.

“Lake Norman Charter and us are definitely the best teams in our league, but it’s not like we’re head-and-shoulders above everyone else,” Rogers said. “There are some teams good enough to beat either of us.”

Lake Norman Charter won 3-1 against Carson when the teams played in Huntersville on Sept. 11.

“We watched a lot of film and made a number of adjustments from that match, changed blocking strategies, changed the angles for our hitters,” Rogers said. “We also did a better job of not hitting it to their libero. Lake Norman Charter’s libero is a phenomenal player.”

Now Lake Norman Charter will have some time to adjust to Carson’s adjustments.The chess match will continue.

When matches are played at such a strong level, not many points are going to be scored on missed serves and unforced errors. Points have to be earned, and you can’t earn them by being predictable.

Fortunately for the Cougars, they aren’t all that predictable. They don’t fall into patterns. Thonen is such an efficient passer that Hedrick had many routine sets, and Hedrick mixed things up well. There were traditional long, looping sets for the high-flying outside girls, but there were also quick, short sets to the middles (Falkowski and Riley Wilhite) for devastating kills.

“I think (outside hitters) Joyner and Perkins must have had 30 kills between them,” Rogers said. “We tried to hit cross-court too much the first time we played them, but we mixed it up better tonight.”

Momentum is as critical in volleyball as it is in any sport. The points at the end of the first set, which could have gone either way, were the biggest of the night.

Carson faced some three-point deficits during that opening set, but stayed in it. Down 22-20. Rogers called a pivotal timeout.

Kills by Joyner and Wilhite got Carson even at 22.

A strong dig by Thonen led to the 23rd point that put the Cougars ahead to stay.

Down 24-22, Lake Norman Charter used a timeout, and then won the next point.

But Carson won the set on a precise pass by Thonen and a perfect set by Hedrick to Wilhite, who was standing just inches away from her at the net. Wilhite put it away.

Lake Norman Charter never recovered. Carson never trailed in the second set, blew out to a 22-12 lead, and won easily, with a Knight smashing the ball into the net for a set-ending unforced error.

The third set was more of the same, a Carson avalanche. It was 10-1 at one point, and the Cougars took it from there. Falkowski had the kill for match point, and the Cougars and their fans celebrated.

“Being at home mattered,” Rogers said. “When we played up there, the crowd was raucous. Tonight we had the fans on our side. They helped us.”

Carson is in position to win (or share) a regular-season conference championship for the first time since 2018 when the Cougars’ senior class included players like Mallory Weast and Carson tied West Rowan for first in the North Piedmont Conference. That was a Carson team that went 26-4 and reached the fourth round of the 3A playoffs.

Since then, Rogers has coached decent teams, pretty good teams and good teams, but none of them have been conference champions. None of them have had the luxury of playing a series of home games in the playoffs.

He believed going into this season that the Cougars were ready for a breakthrough, ready to bring back the glory days, and now here they are, on the doorstep of being a factor in the state again.

“The biggest goal right now is to earn some home games in the playoffs,” Rogers said. “Home games are such a huge advantage over driving four hours to get somewhere.”