So close! Rally helps Woodmont volleyball deny NMB second straight state title
Moments after its thrilling five-set championship match, the North Myrtle Beach girls volleyball team emerged from the locker room.
Some of the players came out with tears in their eyes. Others were hugging each other and family members who had gathered on the court at Dreher High School.
The Chiefs, who were making their fourth straight state championship appearance, were on the cusp of a second straight state title. But Woodmont mounted a late comeback in the final set to knock off the Chiefs, 3-2 (25-27, 25-21, 25-18, 20-25, 15-13) for the Class 5A Division II championship.
“I told them I know this hurts but after that little bit of hurt we don’t forget what a great season we had,” NMB coach Jenn Loeswick said. “And what an incredible match this was. If you are going to go out, this is the one you want to go out in. We played the best we had all season.”
The atmosphere was electric from the start, with the crowd having a heavy Woodmont presence, especially its student section.
NMB won the opening set after fighting off two set points, but the Wildcats took the next two.
Down 2-1 in the match, North Myrtle Beach never quit.
The Chiefs, who trailed at some point in each of the first three sets, never relinquished the lead in the fourth set to tie up the match. North Myrtle Beach scored the first four points of the set and were up 17-12 on Madison Johnson’s kill.
NMB extended the lead to 22-15 before the Wildcats cut the lead to 22-20. But Mikayla Altena served an ace and Clara Cloninger finished off the set with a kill to win the fourth set, 25-20 and force a deciding set.
“It was about grit, resilience and competing,” Loeswick said. “That is what we have talked about all season, focusing on the process and not the outcome. … That’s what they did, and our seniors came out on fire and really took care of some balls early in that set.”
In the deciding set, the two teams traded points before Woodmont took a 9-7 lead. But the Chiefs rattled off four points, including another ace by Altena, to take an 11-9 lead. After Woodmont tied it 11-11, the Chiefs’ defense recorded back-to-back blocks to take an 13-11 lead and were two points away from the match.
The Wildcats weren’t done and closed out the match by scoring the final four points, including the final one on Mallory Mizell’s kill, to win the program’s first title and first championship in any team sport since 1979.
“The pressure wasn’t on us. The pressure was on the other team. We have never been here,” Woodmont coach Haleigh Horgan said. “So for them to come back and fight like that, it was brilliant.”
The championship was a long-time coming for the school and the program, which was 1-14 in 2020. But the Wildcats put together back-to-back 30-win seasons and advanced to the championship in a thrilling five-set win over Nation Ford on Monday.
“We decided we want to change the culture,” Horgan said. “And I said you got to trust me and the system, and it just bled over to this year. My seniors this year just embodied exactly what I wanted, and the others wanted the exact same thing.
“… It is just a trust in me, a trust in their training that they could do the job.”
