Bump, set, spike

Editor’s note: This is the second in a multi-part series covering the time period of 2014-2023 in Sampson County sports.

Just after Thanksgiving, I revealed to the world (and the readers of Sampson County) my first entry in the series recapping the last decade of football within the borders of our beloved county — big wins, heartbreaking losses and how each fared against county foes. It’s time for the second entry, which is volleyball.

Volleyball in this area has been a staple for seemingly decades, especially if you ask area residents. Powerhouses have come and gone, and yet, some have stayed the course of success on the volleyball court.

There are intense rivalries, back-and-forths between intracounty teams, and more parity than in football. There are stories to be told, and after many hours of work, I’m here to tell them for you.

I will admit that I haven’t historically been a massive volleyball fan. Sure, I played it in gym and went to games when I was a budding high school football player. I knew how it was played, who our best players were, and little more. I knew that height was an advantage to a degree, but some of the best volleyball players were the shortest on the team, which perplexed me.

And this newfangled libero — what is that? Again, high school Brandt either didn’t have the desire or the patience to learn the ins and outs of the sport. But, luckily for myself, and the sports section readers of Sampson County, I learned more this year about volleyball than I ever had before. I learned about kills and aces and digs. Oh, and I finally learned what that dang libero is.

So, using my wealth of knowledge from this season plus my research skills, I have compiled all of the data and storylines into one story for you.

Clinton

One of the aforementioned powerhouses, the Dark Horses, can boast about their 145-82 overall record from 2014-23. Their dominance, though, was mostly outside of the county, as they were 29-27 against Sampson foes.

Still, though, they laid down some solid years. Just three seasons saw them go below .500, a feat that most schools would be jealous of. They only missed the playoffs twice — one of those times came in the shortened 2020 season, so I believe that had they had a full season, they still would have made it. They also missed the playoffs in 2017, when they went 12-13.

Their best season across that stretch was easily 2019, when they went 26-2 and beat Midway in the second round of the playoffs. They were knocked out of the playoffs in the fourth round by Wheatmore, falling by a score of 3-0.

Volleyball, compared to football, saw Clinton play more county teams. They averaged about eight games against the county from 2014 through 2016, but the years after saw varying degrees of play. Some years they played four games against Sampson County, other years they played five, and in 2020, their sole opponent within Sampson was Midway, and they faced off twice.

And, like I mentioned earlier, it wasn’t the same level of dominance that they saw in football. They opened the decade with a losing record against the county, going just 3-5 with wins against Union twice and Hobbton once, but losing to Lakewood and Midway twice each, plus a loss to Harrells.

I went back-and-forth on which loss I thought was their most ‘heartbreaking’ across this stretch. In my opinion, there are two — in 2016, their 3-2 first round playoff loss to North Pitt and their 3-2 first round loss to Wallace-Rose Hill in 2022. The same score in the same round made it tough to decide between them. But, I think the 2022 loss takes the cake.

They had a great season that year, going 15-7 and getting third in the conference. Along the way, they took down Wallace-Rose Hill in nonconference action 3-2 on Sept. 19 of that year. But on Oct. 22, the Bulldogs got the last laugh and took the 3-2 win of their own, after a true back-and-forth battle between the two. Clinton won the first and third sets, with Wallace-Rose Hill winning the second and fourth before grabbing the third set 15-6 to send the Dark Horses home early.

Harrells

While the Crusaders down at Harrells don’t have the best overall record to boast here in the county, they have still seen success on the volleyball court, and they’ve also beaten up on the county a little bit along the way. Their overall record for the period was 57-128, while they went 5-6 against the county — including a few years where they went undefeated against Sampson County foes.

Like on the gridiron, they didn’t square off against the public schools in the area very much in volleyball. They played just 11 games total across ten years, which is the second-lowest of any team in the county.

The playoffs for Harrells’ volleyball team might be a sore subject — especially the first round. In the ten years that I’ve covered here, they made the playoffs seven of those seasons. Just once did they make it out of the first round — in 2015, when they went 18-5.

That season was their best in the decade by a long shot. It was one of their two winning seasons, as the following year they went 11-9. Along the way to their playoff win and second place in the conference, they also split the season series against Clinton, 1-1. The Crusaders won Sept. 1 by a score of 3-0, but the Dark Horses were victorious shortly after, winning 3-1 on Sept. 14.

It was also that season that handed the Crusaders most devastating loss. After rolling through Coastal Christian, 3-1, in the first round of the playoffs, they ran into Caldwell Academy in the second. Harrells hopped out to an early lead, taking the first two sets 25-20 and 25-23. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be for Harrells, and the Caldwell Eagles climbed back and won the next three sets. Solace, though, for Crusader fans — Caldwell Academy went on to win state that year, so it wasn’t just Harrells that they beat along the way.

Hobbton

Oh, the Wildcats. To say the decade of volleyball was rough on them would be an understatement. They didn’t fare well at all, going 46-129 over the years with just one winning season in 2016. Their record against the county wasn’t much better, either — they went 9-28 against fellow Sampson schools. Things turned around for them this season, but this story is about the previous ten.

The tale of the tape for Hobbton shows a roller coaster — there were ups and downs all along the way. The Wildcats started the decade off with a 2-17 record, followed by 6-15 in 2015, the 13-9 2016 season, 2-17 in ‘17, 5-11 in ‘18, 0-17 in ‘19, and 1-9 in the shortened 2020 season. However, the 2021-23 seasons saw an uptick. Hobbton went 6-11, 5-12, and 6-12, averaging more wins than they for much of the decade and completing their best season since 2016.

Along that same time period, they also never had a winning season against the county, with their best season being a 2-2 record in both 2017 and 2018 — their only two wins in the former year came against Union.

Naturally, their biggest heartbreaking loss had to have come in their best overall season, the one when they made the playoffs. In 2016, after going 12-8 throughout the regular season, the Wildcats found themselves with the No. 7 seed. They faced off against the No. 10 seed, Bear Grass Charter, in the first round. A quick 3-1 match in favor of Hobbton came about, and the Wildcats traveled to Pamlico County to face off with the No. 2 seed Hurricanes.

In a sweep of Sampson County, Pamlico County took out Hobbton in the second round and Lakewood in the third round, both by a score of 3-0, en route to their fourth round loss to Louisburg. But, for the Wildcats, this was their biggest loss of the decade, even though Lakewood was swept up by the Hurricanes shortly after.

Lakewood

The Leopards absolutely dominated everyone in their path for most of the decade, going to regionals, the fourth round, and the third once apiece, plus four trips to the second. In fact, for the first eight straight years of the decade, they at least made the playoffs, and advanced past the first round in all but one of those trips.

Coach Shelia Davidson, who is now at Clinton after a brief hiatus from coaching to focus on personal matters, can be credited for a lot of the success Lakewood had during this time period. It wasn’t just her, though, that allowed them to obtain their 141-82 overall record and 42-25 record against the county.

Two separate years saw them get a clean sweep of their foes in the county — in 2015 and 2020, they went a flawless 5-0. Not even the bigger schools of Clinton and Midway were safe from their wrath. But, towards the tail end of the decade, they began to falter, and had a 1-7 record versus the county in 2022, and 2-4 in 2023.

In 2014, they had their best season of the time period. They had a run for the ages. Blasting through the regular season, including conference and nonconference play, they were a perfect 25-0 heading into the regional round. There, they took on conference foe Princeton, whom they had already beaten three times throughout the season. The Bulldogs took the first set in their regional matchup, but the Leopards came back and took the next two. Princeton grabbed the fourth set to tie things up at 2-2, and took the final set by a score of 15-7 to win the match. The knife got twisted even further for Lakewood fans, as Princeton went on to win the state championship just a few days later.

Midway

Raider fans, rejoice. I’ve finally made my way to talking about your illustrious volleyball program; one I’m really excited to write about. I’ll start this section off by saying Midway was the best program in the county as far as overall wins. Only one team, Mintz, is better in the category of winning percentage — Midway boasts a 78.24% win percentage over the last ten years with their 187-52 overall record.

The Raiders have absolutely put on a clinic for area programs on how to win on the volleyball court. Half the seasons in the span saw them go flawless against the rest of the county. Five different seasons, they didn’t lose a game to area opponents. They totalled an 18-0 record across those five, but their total record against Sampson County was 36-8 for the decade.

Every giant has an Achilles heel, don’t they? Brace yourselves, Midway fans, because what I’m about to say will be scary, it will invoke a sense of anger, and you might have some choice words for me, too. But, to tell the story of Midway volleyball from 2014 to 2023, I must talk about Camden County.

The Raiders’ kryptonite was the Bruins for a period at the end of the decade. Three straight times they faced off, 2021-23, and three straight times Camden County emerged victorious. The first one was in the third round, after Midway had defeated Farmville Central a year after the Jaguars had knocked the Raiders out in the first round. In back-to-back years, though, the Raiders lost to the Bruins in the regional round, and the Bruins went on to lose the state championship game.

While looking back, there are many games which I could have chosen to be the most heartbreaking for the Raiders, I think a three-year stretch in which each season ended in the same fashion takes the cake and covers them all.

Mintz

By far the most dominating team of the last decade, the Lady Lions boast a 128-13 overall record. Yes, you read that correctly — they lost just 13 games over 10 years, for an average of 1.3 losses a season. They won nearly 91-percent of their bouts across the time period.

But, they don’t play other teams in the county very often, so it’s hard to dub them as the greatest team in the county without a fair sample size of all the teams facing off.

Nonetheless, the Lady Lions obliterated the opposition. From 2018 through 2023, they have lost five total games. The 2018 and 2019 seasons saw them lose no games whatsoever, a flawless combined 34-0. A record of 11-1 in 2020 saw their first lost in three years, but 2021 saw them go 16-0. One loss in 2020 stopped them from going four straight seasons without a loss.

Their lone loss in their 30-1 campaign in 2023 was to a team from Indiana at a national tournament. The team to beat them last year was an outstanding 47-2, with 112 sets won to just nine lost. They ended the season on a 32-game winning streak. Not to be outdone, though, Mintz had 82 sets won versus just four sets lost on a 30-game winning streak of their own. The first set they lost came in their 25th game of the season. Not a match loss, but an individual set loss.

There aren’t many losses in general to come by for Mintz, but the one loss in 2023 has to be their most heartbreaking. Anderson HomeSchool spoiled what should have been a perfect season for the Lady Lions.

Union

The Spartans might not boast the best overall record in county volleyball, but they have played spoiler to local teams a couple of times. And they’ve put together some solid seasons as of late, too.

Their overall record for the decade was 50-133, which at surface level isn’t much. However, if you look and see their 15-8 season in 2022 or their 11-12 record in 2023, you’ll see a drastic change for the Spartans of Union. It was those two seasons when they went a combined 9-3 versus the rest of the county and spoiled a couple teams’ records.

In fact, the only county team to beat them in ‘22 and ‘23 was Midway. They were 0-3 versus the Raiders, but a combined 9-0 against Hobbton and Lakewood across the two seasons.

Of course, there were seasons when they didn’t beat anyone from Sampson, but those happened earlier in the decade covered. They saw a season when they didn’t beat anyone — in the county or not — in 2020, plus two seasons when they only won one in ‘17 and ‘18, but I wanted to tell the good before the bad.

Another bad piece for the Spartans comes in the form of their first-round playoff loss to Northside-Pinetown in 2022, after their best season of the decade. The Panthers knocked the Spartans out of the playoffs in both 2014 and 2022, but the one in ‘22 just seemed to be more devastating to me, since it came in the best season of the decade.