Murphy – Over the last six seasons, Murphy volleyball has a combined record of 126-15 and five Smoky Mountain Conference championships. But until Saturday night, something was missing.
Murphy had made it as far as the fourth round of the playoffs but fallen short. Four of its six losses had come against non-traditional public schools.
This year, the Lady Bulldogs had another opportunity in the fourth round, and another non-traditional public school: Uwharrie Charter. But like they have all year, Murphy held serve at home, besting the Lady Eagles in four sets (25-17, 22-25, 25-12, 25-20) to advance to the 1A Western Regional final for the first time since 2011.
“Amber (Martin) and I, we worked four years for this,” Murphy senior Torin Rogers said. “To achieve it in our senior year, last home game ever, it’s really special.”
Murphy (23-2 overall) travelled to Union Academy (27-2) on Tuesday, which ended after this week’s edition of the Cherokee Scout went to press. The winner will play the winner of Roxboro Community School-Neuse Charter at 6:30 p.m. at Reynolds Coliseum on the campus of N.C. State in Raleigh on Saturday.
The win was also special for head coach Jordan Lovingood, who was a senior on the 2011 team that made it to the Final Four.
“There’s not a better word than proud of my team,” Lovingood said. “And proud of our community for showing up for us.”
Uwharrie Charter (20-6) entered the match as a strong hitting team, but Murphy was up for the challenge. The Lady Eagles got outside hitter Gabi Greene going, though no one else was a consistent problem. The Lady Bulldogs got their usual solid performances from Torin Rogers and Olivia Payne, and got a breakout performance from junior Riley Dockery on both the attack and the service line.
In the first set, Dockery had two aces and a kill as part of a 5-0 run that pushed the lead to 20-14 and gave Murphy the breathing room it needed to win the first set.
“We see her do that in practice,” Martin said of Dockery’s performance. “So we know she has the potential to do it, and to see her finally break that shell and be able to show everyone else what she can do is awesome.”
Uwharrie took the second set, getting a lift from Greene’s serve, which was the fastest Murphy had seen all year. Her first time serving in the second set, the Eagles went on a 6-0 run to take a 12-8 lead. The second time was a 6-0 run that all but closed out the second set for Uwharrie.
The Lady Eagles were aggressive serving all night, though it really only benefitted Greene. She posted a respectable line of seven service aces and four service errors, while the rest of the team combined for just one service ace and eight service errors.
That carried over into the run of play, where Murphy was the cleaner team throughout the match. The Lady Bulldogs dominated the third set, as Uwharrie never got going and had no answer for Payne.
The fourth set was back and forth at first, though Murphy eventually built a 19-14 lead. Uwharrie answered back with four straight, then Murphy countered with four straight. A Payne attack error sent Greene to the service line, though the Lady Bulldogs were able to work out of it. After an ace, a Payne kill and a solo block from Cali Rumfelt ended the match.
It’ll be a 249-mile trip to Union Academy for the regional final.
“We knew this would probably be the outcome,” Lovingood said. “As you go on the road, you’re on a business trip and you just have to take care of business.”