Chatham Central volleyball outlasts South Stanly in 'total team effort'

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BEAR CREEK — Same opponent. Same score. Same situation.

When Chatham Central’s volleyball team broke its final pre-set huddle Tuesday night, the Bears were feeling some serious déjà vu.

This time around, they used it to their advantage.

A year after falling in five sets to South Stanly at home, Chatham Central rallied from down 8-2 in the final set to take down the same conference foe, 3-2, in a thriller of a match that didn’t come easy.

Head coach Brett Walden put it simply: “They didn’t quit.”

And Chatham Central certainly could have. Up until that point, the Bears’ night had been one of inconsistency. In the first set, they led 21-18 but dropped four straight points in an eventual 25-23 loss.

Then, after a relatively effortless 25-17 second set win, Chatham Central was again surging in the third — up 22-17 — before burning that lead, too, in a 26-24 defeat. Volleyball’s a game of momentum swings; through three sets, the Bears were too often on the wrong side of them.

“We had to just settle back down,” senior Lindsay Polston said.

So that’s what they did. Trailing 2-1, Chatham Central got out to an early fourth set lead behind a steady stream of offense from seniors Savannah Stilwell (13 kills) and Grace Jones (11 kills).

South Stanly took a timeout trailing 20-13 — but, unlike they did in the first and third sets and much to the relief of Walden, the Bulls couldn’t spin it into a late comeback. Chatham Central won 25-17.

“We communicated a lot better,” senior Tanner Little said.

The fourth set win sent Chatham Central into an exact replica of a situation it faced last August: deadlocked with South Stanly 2-2 at home, a conference win just within their grasp.

In 2019, the Bears came up short in that fifth set, losing 21-19. And things were trending that way Tuesday, as South Stanly got out to a quick 8-2 lead and forced a desperation Chatham Central timeout.

In an abbreviated tiebreaker set that only goes to 15 points, such a six-point deficit spells disaster. But Chatham Central’s 2020 squad is a “mentally tough group,” Walden said, and they remained steadfast.

The strategy going forward? As Polston recalled it: “Come together, play as a team, be where you’re supposed to be and cover your spots.”

8-4. 9-7. 10-9. Bit by bit and piece by piece, Chatham Central chipped into South Stanly’s lead. And once the Bears played the Bulls to a 10-10 draw, they kicked it into high gear.

Junior Carleigh Gentry hit two consecutive serving aces to put Chatham Central up 12-10. Five points later, a left-side kill from junior Taylor Poe ended the set at 15-12, the Bears officially moved to 2-2 overall and in their Yadkin Valley 1A Conference and the gym collectively exhaled.

“That’s a total team effort,” Walden said.

And some déjà vu avoided.

Reporter Chapel Fowler can be reached at cfowler@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @chapelfowler.