Southeastern wins 2nd straight county MS volleyball title

LUMBERTON — Southeastern Academy and Magnolia Middle entered Monday’s Robeson County middle school volleyball championship ready for a showdown of two dominant, undefeated teams.

It was Southeastern that proved they’re the class of the field.

The Dolphins won 3-0, with set wins of 25-13, 25-19 and 25-12, to claim their second straight county volleyball championship.

“It was just a great display of talent amongst the county,” said Southeastern coach Alicia Lamb, who previously coached at Magnolia. “I wish all these girls good luck from here on out with the travel ball teams. I know Magnolia has nothing to keep their heads down about, they fought hard, I’m proud of coach Jermie (Oxendine). Let’s see what the next season brings.”

“It means a lot; we had to work hard this year,” Southeastern’s Charleigh Talton said. “We really just worked together. We worked in practice on calling the ball a lot, and we really did that today.”

Southeastern (13-0) jumped out to a 17-6 lead in the first set en route to the 25-13 win.

“They started out strong,” Lamb said. “Our serves were over and in, which is what we needed, and we told them they needed to be aggressive on the back row, and I could not thank my players enough for doing that.”

The second set was closer, though the Dolphins still played from ahead; after Southeastern took an 11-4 lead, Magnolia (12-1) closed to a 16-15 gap. From a 20-17 advantage, Southeastern won five of the next seven points to win the set 25-19.

“We made sure we weren’t in our minds,” Southeastern’s Madison Bryan said. “”If we’re not ahead, we start getting in our head and it’s just not good.”

Southeastern took a 15-5 lead in the third set and never led by less than nine points the rest of the way, clinching the match.

“That wasn’t our best showing, but hopefully we’ll be back again next year,” Oxendine said. “We’re a young team, so hopefully we come back better and stronger.”

Southeastern team members include Bryan, Aubrey Carnahan, Brelonna Dixon, Alex Gavaghan, Sophia Graham, Berkleigh Guy, Elliott Humphrey, Kaiya Hunt, Kendall Ivey, Emma Montano, Erin Stone, Talton, Kimber Walters, Rustin Walters and manager Alexis Cobbs.

“We had to work hard this year, because we were losing like three starters (from last year), so we had to work really hard,” Guy said.

Magnolia won a regular-season conference championship before finishing as playoff runners-up.

“(I’m) beyond proud,” Oxendine said. “Having an undefeated regular season, going through the playoffs like they did, none of it was easy. Hopefully we’ll be back next year.”

Members of the Trojans team include Roselyn Chable Molina, Aaliyah Crawford, Aleigha Faulk, Amalia Galeana, Jocelyn Garcia, Kylee Garner, Teagan Hunt, Sara Jacobs Hernandez, Miley Kerns, Jenna Norris, Natalie Oxendine and Ashley Perez Gonzalez.