PCA’s Volleyball Program Makes School History

School history has been made again! Bouncing off of last year’s AHSAA 3A Elite Eight elimination, PCA’s Lady Panthers volleyball team took the early lead against Pleasant Valley High School and never looked back, defeating the Raiders in three sets (25-21, 25-19 and 25-19).

Wednesday marked the first time in PCA’s history with AHSAA that the volleyball team advanced into the Final Four bracket and only the second time they’ve played for a chance at a state title. In addition to the historic game, the Lady Panthers also set a new record earlier this season, finishing regional play undefeated before continuing into Super Regional play.

The victory against Pleasant Valley sparked a higher ambition for the team. “We’re really excited, but we’re not satisfied. We didn’t celebrate for long. We’re focused on getting to work on what we need [to win] this next game,” Kaylon Cantrell, the team’s head coach, said after the first match.

The Lady Panthers then faced off against rival team Trinity Presbyterian School in the Final Four match. In regular season play, the Panthers defeated Trinity twice before but fell to them in their last match during 3A Area play. The Lady Panthers knew they would have to fight to the last set if they wanted a chance to be crowned 3A State Champions. “The girls want to bring home a state championship,” Cantrell said before the afternoon game. “We know it’s going to be a tough game, but we’re excited. We’re ready to play our game.” While the Lady Panthers gave it everything they had, they fell to Trinity in three sets (21-25, 16-25 and 22-25). The team’s record season (36-10) came to an unfortunate end but not before giving our players a taste of accomplishment.

“I hope it fires them up [and] the success we had this season gives them a little taste of what could be. We have a really good group returning and some good girls moving up into varsity,” Cantrell said. “Getting to the Final Four, it was still one step further than we’d ever done, but I hope that we’re not satisfied with that. I hope that getting [to the Final Four] makes us want to go to that championship game even more. We want to get back to state, but we don’t want to just get there, don’t even want to be just final four, but we want that championship game, and be state champions.”

Between their undefeated regular season play, several tournament wins, and their fight in the Final Four, the Lady Panthers finished 16th in the state overall and 2nd in 3A rankings.

“[This season] was really special just because of who this group was, because of these seniors, because they’ve been a part of this program for so long. I would not have wanted [this] for any other group; this group deserved it, and it was really exciting.”

By: Jenna Stilling ’21
Journalism Student