PITTSBORO — Seaforth experienced a sense of déjà vu in its volleyball season opener on August 13.
After a full year since losing to Apex Friendship at the start of its 2023 campaign, Seaforth fell to the Patriots again, 3-1, to kick off the 2024 season.
Despite a combined 26 kills from the reigning Mid-Carolina 1A/2A player of the year Keira Rosenmarkle and sophomore Ally Forbes, the Hawks couldn’t overcome a talented opponent who coach Scott Green believed just simply outplayed them.
“I thought we played hard,” Green said. “We hustled and showed a lot of energy. We just came up against a team that was playing better than us tonight.”
Seaforth got off to a promising start in the first set, riding the new connection between Forbes and setter Josie Valgus, a junior all-state transfer from Woods Charter.
Valgus ended the night with 18 assists, and many of them lifted the Hawks to a dominant 25-10 first set victory.
However, the hot start quickly fizzled by the start of the next set.
Led by hitters Emma Mackie and Caroline Smith, Apex Friendship began to do a better job of handling Seaforth’s attacks and making the Hawks work for points. After getting dominated in the first set, the Patriots returned the favor by jumping out to a 15-6 lead in the second set.
“It wasn’t so much us,” Green said. “It was them. We just couldn’t match what they were doing. They were returning and digging just about everything we hit at them and then sending it back at us.”
Said Green, “It’s disappointing.”
Seaforth didn’t go away easily, though, as a team rally that ended with a kill from Forbes tied the set at 20.
Although a lot of things went wrong for the Hawks, Green said he was “excited” to see that type of fight from his team.
“Hopefully we, as coaches, can channel that in a good direction the rest of the season,” Green said.
The comeback efforts weren’t enough, though, for the Hawks still lost the set, 25-21. Apex Friendship, now with the momentum in a tied match, didn’t let up either.
The Patriots’ defense continued to stand tall and halted any offensive rhythm Seaforth found. Many of their returns forced Seaforth into wild hits that sailed out of play, and the Hawks also didn’t help themselves with some unforced and service errors. Apex Friendship took the third and fourth sets by scores of 25-20 and 25-15, respectively, and picked up its first win of the season.
Seaforth, coming off a 2023 season in which it went 23-6, undefeated in conference play and made a deep run in the state playoffs, fell to 0-1.
This isn’t unfamiliar territory for the Hawks who were in the same position last year after losing to Apex Friendship, 3-2, in the season opener. It’s all about improvement this early in the season, especially for a Seaforth team that’s running with new additions and a new system.
In addition to some of last year’s junior varsity players that have moved up, the Hawks added Valgus and her sister Abigail (a sophomore transfer from Woods Charter). The oldest Valgus will have a significant setting role alongside returner Maris Huneycutt.
“Last year, we ran a 5-1 with Maris as the only setter,” Green said. “Now, we’re running a 6-2 with two setters. So, that’s a completely different type of offense. The thing about the 6-2 is when your setters are front row, they become hitters. Josie’s a good hitter, and Maris is a good hitter. So, we can take advantage of both their setting and their hitting. That’s one good thing about that 6-2 that helps us a lot.”
Forbes said the team’s goals this season are to “win all around,” including conference and state championships, and she believes with the new additions, it’ll “definitely happen.”
But with plenty of games left to play, Green just hopes his team can improve its defense and serving, and Forbes hopes the team learns the benefit of “playing together” from the season-opening loss.
“Just keep playing even through the hard times,” Forbes said. “We had a rough patch where we just didn’t score any points, and it was hard to come back from. So, we just have to limit those in the upcoming games.”
