Photo courtesy of 252Buzz
GREENVILLE–The crowd had long filtered out of Rose High School’s gymnasium as Rampants athletic director Clay Medlin talked with an observer about the volleyball match that had just finished an hour earlier.
“That was one of the greatest matches I’ve ever seen,” said Medlin.
The stories that will be told about Orange vs. J.H. Rose in the state quarterfinals from the observers who watched it will go on for years to come.
Unfortunately for Orange, a lot of the sentences in those stories will include the two most painful words in the English language: what if?
Rose fended off five Orange match points to defeat the Panthers 3-2 in the 3A State Quarterfinals inside a sweltering Rose Gymnasium on Tuesday night. The Rampants (22-4) prevailed on scores of 25-27, 29-27, 23-25, 25-19, 18-16.
It was the embodiment of a match with state playoff pressure where the level of play eclipsed the high stakes. Rose outside hitter Clara Evans, who has committed to play at TCU, finished with 41 kills and 27 digs.
Both teams lost vital players as the match, spanning over two-and-a-half hours, continued with a feverish intensity. One Orange player threw up during a timeout. Another Panther missed most of the fourth set after feeling lightheaded, but eventually returned. Rose sophomore Kate Wallen, who came into the match 2nd on the team with 225 kills, injured her left hand early in the third set and was immediately taken to the locker room. She didn’t return until the fourth set and only played sparingly the rest of the way.
In the fifth set, Orange put up five straight points to take a 13-10 lead. Katie Silcott delivered a kill, followed by another from Aubrey Jordan. When Jordan slammed down a kill, Orange had three match points leading 14-11.
After Jordan sent a serve long, Evans ended a long rally with a spike that hit the end line. The subsequent point will be the subject of discussion for years to come around Orange circles. Rose’rs Breanna Joyner and Maya Swaggerty both came up with digs as played bogged down around the net. Silcott sent a return to Caroline Bayes, who fed Evans for an overhead stroke. The ball was ruled to have hit the line and was called in, though several Orange spectators standing in the end zone vehemently disagreed.
Regardless, the score was tied 14-14, the third set of the night to advance to overtime. Orange earned another match point following a kill from Ava Wilkerson. Evans came back with another kill. Sawyer White responded with a block at the net to provide Orange with a fifth match point, but a return from the Panthers went into the net.
That was the first of three straight Rose points to end the match. Evans got her 37th kill down the line for the Rampants to set up a match point. Orange set up Wilkerson, who faded back for an attack off her back foot that went across the court and over the far sideline. Rose’s players spilled out in a victory pileup after their season in joyous relief after it appeared to be fading into the abyss.
Instead, the Rampants will host West Carteret for the Eastern Regional championship on Thursday night.
“It’s never easy to not come out on top,” said Orange coach Hope Heverly, who guided Orange to the 3A State Championship match in 2023. “We asked the girls one thing. We asked to leave it all out on the floor. And they can all walk away saying they definitely left it all out on the court. They faced a few different adversities throughout the match with a couple of players going out for a few minutes. But they came right back out and took care of what they needed to do.”
Orange ends the year 18-9, champions of the Central Conference regular season and conference tournament.
Orange became the first team in the state playoffs to take a set from the Rampants when they won the second 29-27. There were nine lead changes and 20 ties in the set. Freshman Aubry Hodges forced the first set point off a block, but the Rampants scored consecutive points. After a kill by Evans, Rose got a set point, which was canceled out when Evans sent an attack into the net. Silcott and Jordan each scored kills to earn Orange the set to even the match at one-set apiece.
Orange scored the opening six points of the second set, but the Rampants roared back and took a 16-13 lead. The Lady Panthers responded with four straight points, including two straight kills from Wilkerson and another block by Hodges. Silcott forced set point with a kill to make it 24-22. After a kill by Taylor Loesner of Rose, Silcott sent an overhead spike that rolled along the tape of the net, then fell down on the sideline to put Orange ahead two-sets-to-one.
Rose took the closest thing resembling a decisive set in the fourth, winning 25-19. Wallen returned and the Rampants took a 18-13 lead after back-to-back kills from Maya Swaggerty. Mariah Poole delivered an ace to cut the lead to 21-19, but Rose forced a fifth set by scoring the final four points of the frame, three of which were kills by Evans.
While anyone who attends Cedar Ridge and Orange will tell you the schools aren’t one and the same, the classic match on Thursday night likely ends a remarkable chapter of Hillsborough volleyball vs. Rose in the state playoffs. It dates back to 2021, when Cedar Ridge defeated Rose to win the 3A Eastern Regional championship. The following year, Rose got revenge and ended the storied careers of the Magnificent Six, Cedar Ridge’s senior class of Cameron Lloyd, Cameron Lanier, Julie Altieri, Grace Young, Melissa Benkowitz and Anaya Carter, who delivered a state championship.
Last year, Orange defeated Rose in the state quarterfinals in Hillsborough. Like Cedar Ridge before them in 2021, the Lady Panthers would find their way playing in Reynolds Coliseum for the state championship.
The final chapter in Greenville on Tuesday night was a story in itself. While the careers of Orange seniors Abby Silinski, Karleigh Johnson and Peyton Sigmon are over, the epilogue hasn’t been written for the core of this Lady Panther team. That will be in 2025, when Wilkerson, Silcott, Jordan, Poole, White and Addison Guetensberger, among others, will seek to complete the business that went unfinished, by one painful point, on Tuesday night.
“I’m very proud of the girls,” Heverly said. “Even though we didn’t come out with the win, they definitely turned the season around. I don’t know anybody who thought we were going to be in the Elite Eight. And they proved everybody wrong. This group will hold a special place in my heart.”