WHITMIRE, S.C. — The Lady Wolverines are off to a strong start to the 2026 volleyball season after winning their first three games. Whitmire(3-0) faced Newberry Academy(1-3) at home on Tuesday, Aug. 26 and swept the match with three straight set wins.
The Lady Wolverines and the Lady Eagles are no strangers to each other. The two teams faced each other in a preseason exhibition tournament in early August in which both teams split a two set match, but Tuesday was the real thing.
The first set was all Whitmire from the start to finish. They jumped out to an early lead in the set and didn’t look back. Newberry Academy seem to be sleep walking and had no energy. Whitmire won the first set by the score of 25-13.
The Lady Eagles had a wake up call in the first set and came out on fire in the second set. Sophomore Skylar Hughes started the set off with an ace and she added another one later in the set. The Lady Eagles had a 7-1 lead before Whitmire was forced to call a timeout to regroup. The timeout help the home time slow down Newberry Academy’s momentum and propel their comeback.
Whitmire went on a 10-1 run after the timeout to get their first lead, 11-9, in the set and force Newberry Academy’s sideline to call a timeout. The pause in the action didn’t slow the Lady Wolverines down because they kept things going to extend their lead, 21-15. Newberry Academy would show some fight by going on a mini run fueled by back-to-back aces from freshman Harper Persol. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough and Whitmire would close out the second set with a 25-18 win.
The third set was much like the second set, but Whitmire was still too much for the Newberry Academy. The visitors had a huge play to start the set as senior Kaiden Kibler soared high for a big block to get the first point of the set for Newberry Academy. Whitmire quickly stole the momentum and found themselves leading 8-4 before the visiting Eagles called a timeout.
The two teams would continue to go back-and-forth but Whitmire would still hold a 13-10 lead. Newberry Academy found a way to make things tighter after making a run to now only trail by one point, 18-17. The Lady Wolverines would rely on their experience and close the set out on a 7-1 run to secure the sweep and the match win.
“I think were missing a starter or two in the preseason and to go on top of it, we played in a Easley tournament last week and outside hitter went down with an injury. So we had one practice to put in new rotations and tonight had people played in positions that they weren’t used too,” said Newberry Academy’s head coach Travis Gilliam.
The Lady Eagles will be off for a few days and hit the court again against this same Whitmire team at home on Monday, Aug. 31st.
“Since the beginning of the season, we said we were going to earn it. We were messing with some things in that first preseason tournament. We had two liberos running with the new rules and we just figured out that was not going to work for us. We put in the work in the gym and we pushed ourselves to become better. I am real happy with the way we played and the way we executed,” said Whitmire’s head coach Kaylynn Bowers.
The Lady Wolverines defeated Newberry High School with a 3-0 sweep on Thursday, Aug. 27. Now, they will get ready for their rematch against Newberry Academy on Monday, Aug. 31st.