Article by Tim Hackett
Cedar Ridge High School volleyball coach Anna Seethaler isn’t usually a loud, exuberant coach. She doesn’t usually race up and down the sidelines, yell after every point, and take every opportunity to high-five, advise and rev up her players. She’ll get animated when necessary, but, usually, she’s content to watch, note, and instruct when needed.
Tuesday was not a usual night.
“I feel like we all needed that extra boost tonight,” Seethaler said.
News of one of the best starts to a season in Cedar Ridge volleyball history had clearly spread through Hillsborough, as a boisterous crowd packed the high school’s gym Tuesday night to see how the Red Wolves could rebound from a four-set loss to Jordan the night before. On the other side of the net: the three-time reigning and defending Big 8 conference champions, one of the top-ranked teams, 3A or otherwise, in the state of North Carolina, a team that hadn’t lost a match to a team from North Carolina all year, a team with wins over schools like perennial power Cardinal Gibbons and that same Jordan team that had just beaten Cedar Ridge – the Chapel Hill Tigers.
On a usual night, this Chapel Hill team, by far the taller, stronger, more experienced of the two squads on Tuesday, might have mopped the floor with Cedar Ridge. But Tuesday was not a usual night. Instead, the Red Wolves (7-1, 2-0 Big 8) added a statement win to what could be a signature season, knocking off the Tigers (10-2, 1-1 Big 8) 25-23, 18-25, 17-25, 25-23, 15-12 in an all-time classic in Hillsborough.
A tight first set proved predictive of how the rest of the match would be. No team led by more than four, and Chapel Hill battled back from two different deficits to level the score at 20-all and 22-all before Cedar Ridge took three of the final four points. As a Tiger hit the ball into her half of the net to clinch the first frame for the home team, the first drop of reality seemed to set in on the Cedar Ridge sideline – maybe this really could happen.
From there, the crowd was ready for the occasion: a couple of guys from a large Tuesday night student section bellowed “Oh Yeah!” every time a Tiger prepared to serve or receive (picture the Kool-Aid Man, but a bit more aggressive and about three octaves higher), and there were plenty of slaps on the risers from parents and even some tongue-in-cheek “O-ver-rate-ed!” chants as the match heated up.
Chapel Hill quickly dispelled that notion, however, winning sets two and three fairly comfortably thanks to the swing of senior outside Kaya Merkler, who flashed some of the power from the left side and finesse from the back row that helped her win an offer from UNC a few years ago. Cedar Ridge led 15-11 at one point in set two, but then the Tigers took over, going on a 14-3 run to win the second set and barely ever trailing in the third. Seethaler conceded that it’s rare to see someone with Merkler’s 6’3 frame – not to mention arm strength – at the high school level, but that doesn’t mean she was an unstoppable force.
“The plan was just to be aggressive,” Seethaler said. “She’s good, but she’s human. She can hit into the net and hit into blocks, as long as we force her into that.”
And that’s exactly what they did. As the page turned to the fourth set, the left-side success Merkler and fellow senior outside Julia Charney had in the second and third sets started to dry up, thanks in large part to an improved Cedar Ridge block anchored by freshman Cameron Lanier. But while Lanier’s performance at the net was notable, her effort at the service line bordered on legendary. With set four even at 8 apiece, Lanier head back behind the line and steered her team to a 7-0 run, with five of those points coming from Lanier aces. Chapel Hill finally sided her out and battled back to level the set at 23, but then the other two standout Red Wolf freshmen came through – setter Julie Altieri delivered a setter kill for set point, and outside Cameron Lloyd did the rest by tooling the block to tie the match.
By the time the fifth set arrived, much of the crowd that remained got to its feet. Chapel Hill held the advantage in the early going, but never led by more than two. The visitors were first to what Seethaler conceded was that pivotal tenth point, but with the Tigers ahead 11-10, Lanier stepped back to the line and delivered two more service aces to flip the script. Chapel Hill coach Ross Fields called a timeout. The teams traded points, as Merkler finished off another back row kill to make it 13-12 Cedar Ridge. From there, the Red Wolves’ gameplan was simple: feed Cameron Lloyd. It had worked all season, it had worked all game, and it worked when it mattered most: Lloyd delivered the game’s final two kills, both set up by Altieri, placing the match-winning point precariously over the net, pinpointing it into the middle of the back row for a 15-12, five-set victory.
The excitement and emotion following this epic upset was evident. The Cedar Ridge coaches hugged. Chapel Hill shook hands, huddled and left the premises as soon as possible. Some parents stormed the floor, while others stayed rooted to their seats in disbelief. But in the midst of the mayhem, Layne Foster, with the rest of the team still on the court behind her, bounded up the riser steps, embraced her family, and succinctly summed the night up with three simple words.
“We did it.”
