Randleman wins first volleyball playoff game after bizarre finish at CD

RANDLEMAN — There is only one path a high school volleyball team can take to qualify for the NCHSAA state tournament and that’s to be one of the top 48 teams in its classification according to RPI rankings. 

With the new playoff system adopted last year, the top eight-ranked teams in each region also receive an automatic bye in the opening round, which could very well be key for some programs.

The Randleman Tigers did not qualify for one of the byes in the state 4-A tournament this year, but their fight to earn one of those byes took a very weird and bizarre turn last week during the finals of the Piedmont Athletic Conference Tournament at Central Davidson High School.

Before we explain, the ninth-ranked Tigers did open state tournament action this past Saturday with a blowout of No. 24 Reidsville, 25-6, 25-9, 25-11 at RHS.

The Tigers improved to 18-8 with the win and were set for second-round action this past Tuesday at No. 8 East Duplin, which had the bye the Tigers were attempting to secure last Wednesday night in the PAC Tournament championship match with CDHS.

Okay, buckle up. Here we go.

With RHS and CDHS tying for first place during the PAC’s regular season, the home team for Wednesday’s tournament title game was determined by RPI. CD had a higher RPI, so the Spartans were awarded the home match.

And it was quite a match with CD grabbing a 2-0 lead after wins of 25-23 and 25-15. The Tigers regrouped for a 26-24 win in Game 3 and led the Spartans 22-18 in the fourth set as RHS looked to send the match to a fifth-and-deciding set.

But a power outage throughout much of Davidson County — including at CDHS — and into Randolph County turned the gymnasium dark. Both teams waited and waited and waited and finally found their way outside the gymnasium to the cafeteria, which is located just outside the gym.

RHS coach Kari Hankins said there had been discussions between the coaching staffs and phone calls made to “higher-ups” to determine what should happen. The three options were:

■ Award CD the win based on a best two-of-three scenario.

■ Wait for the power to return, though projections had the power being restored to the area at approximately 11:30 p.m.

■ Travel to a nearby school to finish the match. 

The problem, however, was that both teams had to agree on the solution and with the coaches looking out for their own teams, and rightfully so, no agreement could be made. 

Well after 9 p.m., the decision was finally made to go to Trinity High School and finish so both teams packed up their buses and headed to Trinity.

But during the trip to Trinity, the power was restored at CDHS and both buses were contacted and told to return to CDHS to finish the match. So the match that started at 6 p.m. was to be completed well after 10 p.m. at CDHS.

“It was crazy, that’s for sure, and I’m not sure we have fully recovered from that night,” Hankins said after the win over Reidsville. “It was tough, but I wasn’t going to give up for the girls and that was made clear. I didn’t care where we played. I wanted that game finished.”

The Tigers did finish that fourth-set win 25-23 before falling in set five, 15-12.

“The girls kept a positive attitude,” Hankins said. “I’ve never seen them so hyped. It was a fun experience and we all have a story to tell now.”

That meant the Tigers would not jump into the top eight seeds and receive a bye, but instead had to play Saturday.

But that didn’t seem to bother the Tigers in the blowout first-round win.

Thoughts, however, were still on Wednesday night’s fiasco.

“At first, whenever the power came off, we thought we’d be really tired and we wouldn’t get back going until late,” senior Kaylee Phillips said. “When we got on the bus to go to Trinity and then came back, we had so much energy. We didn’t win, but there was a lot of team bonding.”

That bond showed Saturday in the win over Reidsville, which was 36-244 since 2008 with 10 of those wins coming this season. “We know coming into the state playoffs, we can’t take anyone lightly,” Hankins said. 

With Randleman recording 26 aces in the match, the Tigers never trailed.

“At the beginning of the year, we were having a lot of trouble with serving,” Hankins said. “We worked on it a lot during practice and the serving has gotten better. It’s starting to click.”

Karrington Jones had 12 kills and Lilah Covington added eight. Corbyn Davis had six.