Lady Falcons prevail against Loris Lionesses
By Don Gearhart
The sparse crowd was treated to two fine volleyball matches between the host Darlington Lady Falcons and the Lionesses from Loris. The Junior Varsity Lady Falcons won their match 2 sets to 1. They trailed for most of the first set but fought back to take a 21-20 lead. Loris responded with good floor play and capitalized on some Darlington communication issues allowing easily played volleys to hit the floor and trailed 23-21.
The resilient Darlington then surged to set point at 24-23. Loris tied the score at 24-24 and then went ahead for another set point at 25-24. A net violation caused the set to get tied again and then a playable volley once again landed on Darlington’s side of the net and now Loris was serving for set point. An unforced error from the Lady Falcon defense ended the set in a losing score of 27-25.
Darlington came out for the second set on fire and coasted to a 25-14 win where the final point was by virtue of a service ace.
In the third set (which is only played to 15), the Lady Falcons went up 8-2 prompting a timeout by the Loris bench. From then on it was a back-and-forth event when a block by Darlington gave them a set and match point at 14-7. Loris scored but their ensuing serve landed beyond the end line, giving Darlington a hard-fought match win.
Darlington won the varsity contest three sets to none. The first set of the varsity match looked like a mirror image of the JV contest first set with the Lady Falcons falling behind early. Down 10-4, Carley Gainey stepped to the serving line and rattled off seven straight points to put Darlington in front 11-10. From that point, there was never more than a five-point difference in the score. With set point on their serve at 24-19, a serving error gave Loris life. They responded with two more points to close the gap to 24-22 but got a volley to close to the net and the kill attempt was blocked by Kee Kee Bacote for the win. Hannah Johnson was stalwart for Darlington registering 7 kills, 7 digs, and 4 service points. Bacote was just as prominent with 5 kills, 7 digs, and 2 service aces. Gainey had a kill, 6 digs, 7 service points (1 ace), and a block. Caroline Caldwell dished out 13 assists and also had 4 digs. Kadence Martin had 3 kills, a dig, a service point, and a block. Addison Roache had 6 digs from her Libero position.
In the second set, it was the Lady Falcons who jumped out in front early. Leading 8-2, they went dormant as Loris scored seven straight points to take a 9-8 lead. The two squads traded points until Darlington took a 17-16 lead and would never trail enroute to a 25-19 score with the set point coming from a Johnson kill. Johnson led the attack with 4 kills, 10 digs, and an assist. Bacote had 2 kills, 4 digs, and 7 service points (2 aces). Gainey had a kill, 4 digs, a block and her two service points were both aces. Caldwell guided the offense with 6 assists and also had 3 digs and a kill. Roache kept the ball off of the floor with 8 digs. Jeszariah McCall-Baynes had a kill and 3 service points.
The third set was the tightest of the three. From the first serve, the teams remained within a few points of one another. However, once the Lady Falcons went ahead by a 5-3 score, they never trailed. Loris was able to tie the set at 19-19 and with the Lady Falcons serving for set and match point, the Lionesses staved off defeat and came withing 24-22. Alas, their next serve went into the net giving Darlington a sweep of the match. Johnson repeated the first set kill total with 7. She also had 9 digs and 2 service points. Caldwell was busy contributing 7 assists, 5 digs, a kill, a block, and a service point. Gainey swapped places with Roache at the Libero position and had 5 digs. Roache, had 3 digs and 3 service points (1 ace).Iyana Dickey had 3 kills and an assist. Bacote had a kill, 6 digs, and 3 service points (1 ace) and kept the Loris diving for saves on numerous other attacks. Martin had a kill and a block. Quonoria Johnson had a dig and a service point and Anastasia Nelson had a dig and 3 service points.
For the match, Hannah Johnson led in kills with 18 and Bacote followed with 8. Caldwell was the assist leader with 26. Hannah Johnson also led in digs with 26 with Roache adding 17 and both Gainey and Bacote registering 15 saves apiece. The service points leader was Bacote with 12 including 5 aces. Gainey followed with 9 (3 aces). Both Gainey and Martin each had 2 blocks.
The match was played on October 1, 2026.