Stiff volleyball competition in county propels RHS in league play

RANDLEMAN — Every time there is a realignment among the NCHSAA schools, it may take a season for any coach to get familiar with the strength of that new conference.

With this last realignment, which began with the 2025-26 season, the Randleman High School volleyball team lost powerful conference members Southwestern Randolph and Uwharrie Charter Academy along with what has turned out to be a program on the rise in Trinity.

Add to those schools another strong program in Providence Grove along with Eastern Randolph and Wheatmore and what was once a conference involving seven teams from Randolph County turned into a conference where RHS is the only county team.

Joining the Tigers, who have had an impressive volleyball program for quite a while, were Central Davidson and Ledford, along with Lexington, High Point Andrews, High Point Central and Montgomery Central. 

“The new conference is tough because we don’t really see them a whole lot and we’re traveling more,” said first-year head coach Keri Price Hankins, who once played in the Tigers’ program under former coach Keri Mitchell. “The better competition, the better games come from teams in Randolph County. Those are the teams they really want to beat. We’ve been in that conference for so long, it’s hard moving to a new conference.”

This new conference has provided very little resistance to the Tigers over their first two seasons. RHS has won all 19 of their Piedmont Athletic Conference matches the past two years, including a perfect 12-0 in 2025, while starting this season 7-0. Coupled with two regular-season wins RHS captured at the end of the 2024 campaign in the old PAC, the Tigers have won 21 straight regular-season conference matches.

Not only have the Tigers won every PAC match the last two seasons, they have won them convincingly. Only one time in those 19 wins were the Tigers forced to a fifth and deciding set. And only twice have they seen a match last four sets. Overall in the 19 matches, RHS is 57-4 in sets, while recording 16 sweeps.

Last week featured a sweep of High Point Andrews, while this week featured scheduled matches against Lexington and Montgomery Central, two teams the Tigers swept in the first rotation of the league schedule.

“It’s not something we have talked about, but hearing you say those numbers, those are huge numbers,” Hankins said. “I like looking into those things and that is pretty awesome to have those.”

Playing top-notch non-league competition, especially against teams from Randolph County, has prepared the Tigers for what they see in conference action. 

Last season, the Tigers were 36-1 in sets during the PAC regular season with wins over Lexington (3-0) and Central Davidson (3-1) in the PAC Tournament.

This season, Central Davidson took the Tigers to five sets on Sept. 3 with RHS winning 25-22, 22-25, 25-19, 22-25, 15-13. The two teams will meet again at Central Davidson on Sept. 29. Ledford is the only other team that has secured a set win over RHS, that occurring in a 3-1 win for the Tigers on Sept. 10.

“There have been some tough moments in the conference, but this conference just doesn’t feel the same as the other one,” Hankins said. “It takes awhile to figure it out, especially with all the traveling we’re doing. 

“We’re not playing teams our girls watch or have friends on. We have to watch a little more film. The new conference has some good and bad, but I do love the competition from the Randolph County teams.”

With the new playoff format, which took effect last year, conference champions are not rewarded when it comes to the postseason. Instead, all seeds are determined by a formula known as RPI, which takes your record, your opponents’ records and your opponents’ opponents’ records into the equation. So playing subpar teams, although they are in your conference, can be detrimental.

For instance, RHS earned a sweep over HPA, which is 3-9, last week, but slipped in the RPI rankings to 16.

“All we can do is what’s in our control,” Hankins said. “We look at RPI numbers, but I’m not big on that right now. We are taking it one day at a time. That’s why we have to keep scheduling tough Randolph County teams.”