Girls volleyball is playoff bound

By John Smithson

Let’s hope Yogi was right and it’s “déjà vu all over again.”

The North Myrtle Beach Lady Chiefs are already 6-5A region champs. They are the number 1 or 2 volleyball team in the state’s 5A classification. They ended their regular season with a 33-5 record, most of those losses against top ten teams in the state in grueling tournament play. Seems a lot like last year.

Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. The Chiefs had one last regular season match last week, another go-round with Lucy Beckham in Mt. Pleasant. Like most matches with the Lady Bengals it was a hard-fought night of volleyball against a good team.

But the Chiefs ended the regular season with a 3-1 win (19-25, 25-23, 29-27, 25-15). Look at those set scores if you don’t believe it was a battle.

The Chiefs won that match due to strong play from the heart of their team, players and names that show up on stats sheets after every match. Clara Cloninger had 21 kills in that match. Lilly Loeswick had 13 kills.

Katlyn Powers received 36 serves in that match, Cloninger 17, Loeswick 15. Four players were in double figures in digs. Powers had 22 digs, Loeswick 21, Harlow Horton 18 and Cloninger 14 digs. Mikayla Altena had 45 assists in the match.

Everybody else on the floor when those named players notched a stat had to do their job as well. That’s the way you win a set, come back from a dropped set and win, or make a play to help your team. That’s the way you win and prepare for the state playoffs.

Coach Jenn Loeswick knows how far her team has come and what lies ahead. “We sealed the region championship by sweeping Myrtle Beach at home. I am just so proud of this team for their continued growth. We played in an incredible tournament at Wando, going 4-2 and competing against four of the top ten teams in the state, and a fifth team in the top 20. It was fantastic to get to compete against such a high level of competition in the tournament and then play another excellent team, Lucy Beckham for our final match before playoffs begin. We are looking at a first-round bye and hoping for a number one seed to be able to host as many playoff rounds as we can,” Loeswick said.

As of Monday, the playoff brackets were not finalized. However, the Lady Chiefs did have a bye on Wednesday and will host a match on Monday evening.