Charger Sports: Chargers Recover On Incredible Senior Night To Shut Down The Knights

Varsity Volleyball : Spotsylvania Knights vs. Chancellor Chargers

The Chargers line up together one last time.

The Chancellor Chargers came into Thursday night with emotions running high and the stands crowded with families and friends celebrating some of the seniors' last home game. Also, Senior Bella Conrad sang the national anthem by herself to start the game, which set the emotional mood for the night. Those emotions showed early, but the Chargers cleared it up and roared back for a 3 - 1 win against the Spotsylvania Knights.

(Senior Send-Off at end of article)

In the first match, Coach Bob Walsh filled his starting team with all four seniors on the team for the night, and they stayed their for the majority of the night and it was well deserved. The first match was a bit shaky, as miscues and faults let the Knights keep a lead. It was still a very close match, as rallies seemed to last forever and the Chargers gave it their all on every play. The Knights' No. 6 had sparks flying off her hand as she spiked the ball continuously leading her team to an early lead. The Knights rode to an early game lead with a Match 1 score of 25-20.

Senior Bella Conrad was owning the serve all night,
serving 20 times without a single error.

The second match was when the Chargers really found their footing and started to show glimmers of dominance. Senior Brittany Margelos brought her team together before the match recharging some energy and getting them ready and it showed. Junior Mackenzie Coates spiked the ball with fiery intensity along with Senior Eryn Suttle to pulverize the Knights' defense. Senior Bella Conrad also helped her team drive to a lead early with her serves that set up Charger points. The Chargers showed some more consistency in a tight match, as they pulled away late to take Match 2 with a final score of 25-21.

Match 3 seemed just as intense as the two before it, as the crowd really started to get into it. The Knights struggled to get any points at all as the brick wall in front of the net (also known as Juniors Sydney Collins and Maddy Burnard) kept any Knights attempts at spiking the ball to fail. The crowd was electrified, and the Chargers put together multiple drives led by Junior Arianne Parker, Conrad, and Margelos who helped serve their team to victory. Coates also greatly helped her team racking up her ace total on the year even further. At the end of the match, it was the Chargers with a commanding 25-11 victory.

The final match of the night had the home crowd roaring. The Chargers absolutely dominated with their seniors on the court as Suttle and Conrad continued to have amazing nights. Senior Ashleigh Jenkins had her way as well as she set up multiple hitting attempts and had nine of her own. The Chargers didn't even let the Knights breathe as they quickly jumped out to a large lead and knocked out the Knights. After the Chargers scored 21 points, all the seniors were escorted off the court with a standing ovation from the crowd. Just to put a cherry on top, Collins knocked in her 11th block of the night to lock up a Charger victory. The final, fourth match, ended with a score of 25-8.

The Chargers always showed great spirit and teamwork this season.

Next week the the Chancellor Chargers will look forward to the playoffs, with their first game on Thursday night.

Chancellor's Notables

Hitting Attempts / Kills : 76 / 27 (Leader - No. 6 Mackenzie Coates who was 14 / 7)
Serves / Faults : 95 / 7 (Leader - No. 7 Bella Conrad who was 20 / 0)
Saves : 27 (Leader No. 10 Brittany Margelos with 11)
Digs : 31 (Leader No. 10 Brittany Margelos with 13)
Blocks : 19 (Leader No. 11 Sydney Collins with 11.5)
Aces : 17 (Leader No. 6 Mackenzie Coates with 5)

Senior Send-Off

This year, I came into my first ever volleyball game with no idea of how the game even worked. Since then I've fallen in love with the game, and these girls' effort and way of play is part of that enjoyment of the game. Seniors No. 1 Eryn Suttle, No. 7 Bella Conrad, No. 9 Ashleigh Jenkins, and Team Captain No. 10 Brittany Margelos always gave it their all while on the court and are great people to model your way of play. I am honored to have watched them play this year and wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors!