The Newberry Academy volleyball team won the state championship Monday night. Pictured: Front row (L-R) Baylee Kinard, Daja Taylor, London Huggins, Khloe Cheeks, Cassie Gilliam, Jade Hughes. Back row Madison Rivers, Caroline Senn, Kailey Cheeks, Allison Joyner, Bethany Sawyer, Jayla Williiams.
NEWBERRY — The Newberry Academy volleyball team won the state championship Monday night, defeating Patrick Henry 3-1 to capture the SCISA Class A State Title. It’s Newberry Academy’s first-ever state championship in volleyball.
Playing at Ben Lippen in Columbia, the Eagles stormed to a strong start, winning the first set 25-13, but the Patriots captured the second set 25-22. Then Newberry Academy rallied from a 17-7 deficit to win the third set 25-21 and a 20-13 deficit to win the deciding fourth set 25-21 and capture the state championship.
Upon arriving back in Newberry, the team bus received a police escort through the county and back to the school on Smith Road with officers of the Newberry County Sheriff’s Department, Newberry Police Department, Newberry Fire Department and Newberry Rescue Squad providing escort and a celebratory path on Wilson Road.
“It’s a really exciting victory,” said Head Coach Travis Gilliam. “But not just because of how the game was, but because these girls worked for it so hard. From March with Zoom sessions and workouts at home and then finally getting into the gym later, the girls worked so hard. We didn’t even know if there was going to be a season because of COVID-19. But once SCISA put out the rules — you can have three people in the gym, then five in pods — and then once they gave us the green light we could play with these stipulations, the rest was gravy. Once they gave it, we were headed headfirst. We had great leadership, and that really helped.”
Newberry Academy advanced to the state finals by winning three matches in the state playoffs Saturday in Myrtle Beach. The Eagles defeated Laurens Academy, Holly Hill, and Cambridge. They also were the region champions and finished the season 16-3.
Team members were Daja Taylor, Bethany Sawyer, Cassie Gilliam, Caroline Senn, Kailey Cheeks, Baylee Kinard, Allison Joyner, Khloe Cheeks, Jade Hughes, London Huggins (captain), Madison Rivers and Jayla Williiams. Head coach was Travis Gilliam and assistants were Karla Gilliam, Jenny Senn and Kate Cheeks.