Cavaliers Return Eight Offense Starters to Grid Iron This Fall

By WORTHY EVANS Contributing Writer Columbia - With Gray Collegiate Academy’s volleyball team entering the second half of Region 4-AAAAA play, the War Eagles (18-4, 5-0) are in the driver’s seat for a region title, provided they can hold off Blythewood (11-11, 4-1).  “We’re rolling around this time of year, in the second half of region play,” head coach Shonda Wallace said. “We’re looking to finish strong.” Gray last won a championship in 2023, back when the War Eagles were at the AA classification. Now in AAAAA, the War Eagles are excelling. The team lost Courtney Burgess , who now plays at Virginia Tech , and two other seniors. Burgess had 219 kills (3.3 kills per set), 57 blocks and 53 aces last year as the team went 22-5 and a second-place (13-1) finish in Region 4-AAAA. While Burgess left, five out of six starters returned and, with two transfers, have brought the program to a higher level. “Fans will always wonder if we’re as good (without Burgess) because we lost an impact player,” Wallace said. “But I think we’re just as good if not better with our returners and transfers. We’re playing really well together.” The team showed its togetherness early. Gray started the season using a 6-2 offense (two setters, back row only; six hitters) until one of the setters, sophomore Ela Perez , broke her arm. The War Eagles had to return to a 5-1 offense (one setter; universal) with senior Colby Branham as the setter and didn’t miss a beat “She’s used to running the 5-1 from league volleyball and a lot of the girls were used to playing in that offense,” Wallace said. “She’s our setter, and setters don’t get a lot of the glory but they do a lot of the work. They’re the ones who touch the ball every single time. Branham is getting close to 1,000 career assists since becoming a starter in 2025, with 806 as of Oct. 2. Middle hitters Sadie Williamson , a sophomore, and junior Olivia Ford provide a dynamic boost as well as hitting efficiency. Williamson has 96 kills to Ford’s 95, and Ford has 35 blocks to Williamson’s 32. Junior Libero Haylen Lawson battled injuries last year but has played steady, with a team-leading 206 digs to go with 22 aces and 43 assists. Junior Emily Burgess , Courtney’s sister, is a jack-of-all trades on the court. She has 126 kills, a team-leading 163 rotation points, 243 service attempts, 154 digs, and 246 service receptions. “She does everything for us,” Wallace said. “She has to hit, serve, play defense, and she does all of it well.” Junior transfer Peyton Capps , who leads the team in kills with 163 and has 12 blocks, 92 digs and 151 service receptions, provides an extra punch in the lineup. “She is a super dynamic offensive player,” Wallace said. “Really solid for us and adds to the culture.” Senior outside hitters Brianna Jones (31 kills, 29 blocks) and Sasha Hughes (23 kills, 12 blocks) have come into their own this year. “Brianna’s a 6-footer and right-side attacker, and I enjoy seeing the strides she has made,” Wallace said. “She embodies what the right side does, she has to block at the net and she has to put the ball away.” Hughes, who has been on Wallace’s teams since she was a freshman. “She was an integral part in the 6-2 offense, but when the team had to go back to the 5-1, she had to take a lesser role,” Wallace said. “It’s just the way the offense had to change. She has been extremely patient and learned to be OK with her new role, which is when we need her on the court as an offensive threat. She has been such a good teammate through it all.” With just a few games left in the season, Wallace appreciates the team’s focus at this point in region play. “Our goal from the beginning of the year was to win region, but it’s a game-by-game process,” she said. “we’re playing our best volleyball of the season and we’re working to solidify all of our goals that we wanted to reach by the end of the season.”

By WORTHY EVANS Contributing Writer Columbia – The run goes on for the Heathwood Hall girls cross country team.  The Highlanders, who won five straight SCISA state championships, got off to a great start in trying for a sixth. The girls took first place in the season-opening Skyhawk Invitational Aug. 15, with a total of 67 points. Junior Annabel Martin finished in sixth place with a time of 19 minutes, 14.84 seconds. Junior Lydia Smith took seventh place, followed by freshman Cate Leppard at 12 th place and sophomore Haley Hicklin at 27 th place. “We got off to a really good start,” Heathwood Hall head coach Willis Ware said. “We finished first at the Skyhawk Invitational and we did really well in the Heathwood Halll Invitational (Aug. 29), where we had several girls set some PRs there and in the Mike Moore Classic (Sept. 12).” Heathwood Hall, which was the only event this season where all seven of the team’s fastest runners competed, finished second in the Invitational it hosted Aug. 29, behind the state’s top girls cross country team, Chapin . Dorothy Hutchins , who did not run in the Skyhawk Invitational, came in third with a personal best, sub-18-minute finish with a time of 17:58.86. Martin bettered her time with a fifth-place finish at 18:29.70 and Smith came in 11 th with a time of 18:58.01, and Leppard finished 39 th at 20:04.46. At the Mike Moore Classic at Saluda Shoals Park in Columbia, the Highlanders finished second behind Chapin again. Hutchins finished third, and Leppard improved her time to 19:45.90 and finished 11 th . “We have not had my all seven of my fastest girls run together since the Highlander invitational mainly because of alternating runners in events to give some girls a rest and letting some of the other girls run,” Ware explained. “They’re all off to a really good start and I’m really proud of the good job the girls have done with their standing not just in SCISA but also competing hard against Chapin, which is the best cross country team in the state.” The team, with a completely different lineup, finished fifth among the 27-team field in the Hare & Hounds Invitational Sept. 18-19. Aimery Coffey finished 11 th with a time of 18:40.20, followed by Emma Nelson’s 20 th -place finish at 19:22.90, Mikayla Freeland’s 56 th place finish and Carmella Hayes’ 73 rd place finish. Heathwood Hall ran in the Alexander ( Brian Robinson ) Invitational in Douglasville, Ga., last Saturday and will run in the Bob Jenkins SCTCCCA Coaches Classic in Newberry this Saturday. Ware said all of his top runners will be competing there. After those events, the Highlanders will split their roster to run in the Lights Out Invitational at Blythewood and at the VA XC Showcase in Mechanicsville, Va. Both events play out Oct. 17. Two weeks after that comes the SCISA State Cross Country Championships at Heathwood Hall Oct. 31. Naturally, the focus will be whether the home team can walk another trophy into the school and put it in the trophy case. Ware is quick to emphasize that no state title is merely given to the team that’s expected to win it.

By WORTHY EVANS Contributing Writer Columbia – Region 3-AAAAA play has thus far been a challenge for the White Knoll volleyball team. The Timberwolves (12-6) got off to an 8-0 start before stumbling against region foe River Bluff Sept. 15, and later dropped a tournament game and two region games to Lexington , and another game against Chapin . “We’re playing decent as a whole group, but we’re just making simple mistakes that need to be fixed in practice,” head coach Amber Derrick said after her team’s third loss to the Wildcats Oct. 1. “I feel like they can beat any team in our region but it’s just the mental space that we have to be in to be able to do that.” Derrick is not leaning on coach talk. The Timberwolves have already improved over last year’s 8-19-2 mark, which was itself an improvement on the team’s 4-15 record in 2024. She attributes the team’s growth into this year to the Timberwolves’ seven seniors, libero and outside hitter Addisyn Fernandez , libero and defensive specialist Taylor Clariday , defensive specialist and setter Madison Lindler , right-side hitter Marissa Clarke , and middle hitters Natalie Harris , Jayla Taylor , and Samantha Keller . “This group is incredible. I’ve got a lot of leadership on the court,” Derrick said. “My group of seniors is probably one of the best that I’ve had in the past three years. I couldn’t ask for a better group to be leading right now, but we’ve just have to get into our head and make a place.” Fernandez, the primary Libero, keeps the team alive on the floor. “Addy is amazing,” Derrick said. “She can pass, she can set, she can hit, she can do everything. She’s a big key to our success.” As a middle hitter, Harris keeps the volleys going on the court, but Derrick values her as a team mentor. “She has a big impact leadership wise, she takes the girls under her wing and tries to help them as much as she can with her knowledge in the sport as well.” Junior outside hitter Alyssa Hendrix isn’t overshadowed by the seniors. So goes Hendrix, so goes the team, Derrick said. “She’s a key player as well, the team relies on her a lot to gain points and succeed on the court. If she’s having a bad day then we all kind of shut down.” With four games left in the regular season as of Friday, the Timberwolves look to get at least a couple more region wins to help them secure a good postseason berth.  “I sure hope so,” Derrick said. “As long as we show up and play our game anything can happen. We always have our days, which every team does, but most of the time they’re driven and they’re ready to go.”

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