Lady Blue Flame players Faith Clarkson (#32) and Caroline Lucas (#11) set up a double block against Westwood Thursday in the third round of the playoffs.
Robert Bradley
PICKENS — After earning a well-deserved bye in the first round of the playoffs due to a stellar regular-season record, the Pickens High School Lady Blue Flame volleyball team downed the South Pointe (Rock Hill) Stallions and the Westwood (Blythewood) Redhawks in the second and third rounds of the 4AAAA state volleyball playoffs, advancing to meet Catawba Ridge High School of Fort Mill in the Upper State Championship Nov. 2.
The Catawba Ridge match was played in Fort Mill Tuesday evening, with results too late for press time. The winner of the match moves on to the state championship Nov. 6 at Dreher High School in Columbia.
“Our team is focused and working toward one goal at a time,” said Lady Blue Flame Head Coach Rikki Owens. “Our practices have consisted of working on what we need to accomplish to make us the most competitive in the next round of playoffs. We realize this will only be a portion of the ‘fight.’ We have used the following quote as we prepare: ‘You can beat 50 percent of your competition by consistently showing up and working hard. You can beat the next 40 percent by doing things with urgency and detail. The last 10 percent…is simply a dogfight.’ We know this next round with Catawba Ridge won’t be easy. So we have to focus on doing ‘the little things’ and playing smart.”
The Lady Blue Flame defeated both South Pointe and Westwood in three straight sets in the friendly confines of Coach Peggy Harden Anthony Gymnasium. The Westwood match was the final home match of the season. If the Lady Blue Flame wins against Catawba Ridge, it will be the team’s fifth straight Upper State crown. Pickens High has won 15 state volleyball championships since 1980, the last one coming in 2014.
The Pickens team’s record stands at 35-3 on the season, with all three losses coming against 5A schools. The team finished the regular season 8-0 in Region 1A play. The Lady Blue Flame volleyball team did not drop a single set during region play.