West Henderson finishes perfect season with a championship win over rival Cardinal Gibbons

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Game one was all Cardinal Gibbons. The Lady Falcons were tight and started with a hitting error followed by three violations. The Lady Falcons looked strong but every hit and dig seemed to go wrong. The Crusaders were in total control moving quickly to open a 12-3 lead. The Crusaders Madison Bugg and Michelle Fadool provided the offense at the net and the rest of the team did their part. The Crusaders rode off to an opening 25-16 win.

West Henderson head coach Jan Stanley, the winningest volleyball coach of all-time in North Carolina and NCHSAA Hall of Fame inductee next spring, had a talk with her team after the first game and when they came back on the floor, they were an entirely different team. 

The Lady Falcons seemed to loosen up and stopped trying to overpower the Crusaders to instead let the game flow. Instead of trying to hit kills through the blocks, they hit off the top of the blocks and let the ball careen out of bounds. The play was close with 16 ties in the game. The Lady Falcons got good offense and defense from game MVP Erica Cantrell and Meredith Foster. 

The Crusaders were paced by Avery Striebel with support from several other attackers.  With the score West Henderson 23-19 the Crusaders got a kill from setter Molly Krull and capitalized on several Lady Falcons mistakes to tie at 23-all. The Lady Falcons then took the lead on a block by Summer Kremer but the Crusaders quickly tied and went ahead 25-24 on a kill by Striebel and a team block.

But the Crusaders made two errors to move the game back to the Lady Falcons 26-25. Striebel tied the score on a kill but then the Crusaders failed to cover a dumped ball and Striebel miss hit a spike to give the game to the Lady Falcons 28-26.

Games three and four were both close with West Henderson taking game three 25-21 behind the good play of Cantrell, Kremer, and Meredith Foster.  Game four went to Cardinal Gibbons 25-19 as they strung together a nine point run in early play and could never be caught.  Kramer, Fadool and Michelle Nemesi provided offense for this game as the Crusaders tied the match 2-all to force a game five.

Game five provided more excitement as the teams were tied five times before the Lady Falcons strung four points together to lead 11-7.  Cantrell and Foster provided the offense for the Lady Falcons while Striebel and Bugg led the attack for the Crusaders. 

With the score 11-8 the Lady Falcons grabbed the next three points to get to the verge of victory at 14-8, but the Crusaders fought back and Christina Dorismond and Michell Fadool combined on double blocks to stop two match points.

It was too much for the Crusaders to overcome as a miss hit spelled a 15-10 West Henderson victory and sent the Lady Falcons streaming onto the floor.

There were tears of joy and of sadness after the game with seniors feeling the most emotions and underclassmen knowing that these two teams will meet again for another duel on another day.

"West Henderson has a fine team and 'today', we were outplayed," said Cardinal Gibbons head coach Jim Freeman.

West Henderson: Erica Cantrell (13 kills, 9 blocks, 12 digs, 1 ace), Summer Kremer (12 kills, 3 blocks, 9 digs), Meredith Foster (7 kills, 22 blocks, 1 dig), Kaitlyn Burton (4 kills, 5 blocks, 9 digs, 2 aces), Regan Macomson (4kills, 13 blocks), Stephonie Watkins (2 kills, 5 blocks).

Cardinal Gibbons: Avery Striebel (16 kills, 3 blocks, 10 digs, 2 aces), Michelle Fadool (17 kills, 3 blocks, 5 digs), Madison Bugg (9 kills, 3 blocks, 16 digs, 1 ace), Christina Dorismond (7 kills, 9 blocks, 1 dig), Michelle Nemesi ( 7 kills, 5 blocks), Molley Krull (2 kills, 43 assists).