A season ago, the Clayton High School volleyball team finished the year with 15 wins, got to the final of the Greater Neuse Conference tournament where they lost to conference rival Cleveland, made the 3A state playoffs as a #14 seed, hosted the #19 seed in the first round – and lost in straight sets.
Now, one year later, the Comets found themselves in familiar territory. Clayton finished the year with 15 wins, got to the final of the conference tournament where they lost to rival Cleveland, made the 3A state playoffs as a #14 seed, and hosted the #19 seed in the first round – but this year, the end result was a little different.
On the other side of the floor, the Orange High School volleyball team had been in the playoffs for the past four years, but the Panthers hadn’t been able to push past the first round since 2015, when Orange got all the way to the third round as a 21-seed. A couple of key wins late in 2019 ensured the Panthers would be playoff participants again, giving second-year head coach Kelly Young a second chance to guide the Panthers deep into the postseason.
On Saturday afternoon, the #19 seed Orange Panthers (16-8) took a long trip south to Johnston County and battled the Clayton Comets (15-10) every step of the way, but Clayton’s depth on the outside and talent at the service line helped lift the Comets to a straight-sets win (25-22, 25-20, 29-27) over Orange, ending the Panthers’ season in the first round for the fourth straight year.
Orange got out to a quick early lead on the road in the first set, but Clayton tied the score at six apiece and then went a big run to open up a 17-12 lead. Young called a timeout and her team responded, battling back to within 19-18, which prompted a matching timeout from first-year Clayton head coach David Nicholson. That timeout had a similar effect for the Comets, which pulled away for a 25-22 win.
Orange again struck for an early 4-1 lead in set two, but Clayton, needing some offense, once again found it through Kayla Burbage, a 6’2 junior middle hitter with long arms and a cannon of a swing. She missed nearly all of September and it’s fair to wonder how much better Clayton’s seed would’ve been had she played the entire season, but she certainly came to play Saturday. A player that averages 4.87 kills per set with a hitting clip of .360 and that kind of height is a potential star at any level, and she was a matchup nightmare for Orange Saturday. The Panthers did well to limit top Clayton outside Maya Gray, who averages 3 kills per set herself, but Burbage’s big arm helped stake the Comets to a 20-13 edge. The Panthers were able to claw back into the set, but the deficit was too large to overcome – Clayton won 25-20 for a 2-0 set advantage.
Unlike the first two sets, in the third, it was Clayton that grabbed an early lead. But, also unlike the first two sets, the Comets never held a big lead. Instead, Orange, knowing its season was on the line, fought every step of the way, fending off match points at 24-23 and 26-25, and even having a chance to take the set themselves at 27-26. But on their third match point, the Comets forced Orange into a tough defensive situation, and the Panthers overpassed the ball right in the center of the net – and there, of course, waiting to spike it down was Burbage to lift Clayton to a 29-27 victory and a straight-sets win.
Clayton played to its strengths perfectly in this match. A Comet team that, incredibly, averages more than twice as many service aces as it does errors served well all day Saturday, and with top outside Gray stopped up, the Comets found offense from other sources, including Ella Callahan, a freshman outside who tallied at least 15 points serving and attacking after she had appeared in just six sets all season prior to Saturday.
But Orange truthfully played a very strong game as well, producing an effort that would have been more than good enough to beat a lesser team that doesn’t have the ability to go on service runs like Clayton does. The Comets slowed down top Panther outside Avery Miller, but the patented Panther right-side attack from Lottie Scully and especially Ella Van Tiem worked excellently. Emma Vosburg and Devyn Norman both had their moments in the middle, offensively and defensively. Senior Emma Clements has been resurgent lately in this season, and she had a solid final game overall as a Panthers. Scully and Kaitlyn Werden split the setter duties well, both serving well and facilitating clean offense. And libero Brooke Fryar was back there to keep things about as clean as usual. But on this day, all of those good efforts were simply not good enough, and the Panthers quickly packed up their things and hopped on the bus back to Hillsborough to reflect on another strong season of volleyball at Orange.