Pickens senior hitter Emma Van Daele hits over the Aiken block during the championship match at Dreher High School Saturday evening.
Robert Bradley
Pickens crushes Aiken to claim 4A volleyball state championship
All-state junior setter Lauren Dow sets a ball to a Lady Blue Flame hitter during Saturday’s state AAAA volleyball championship.
Robert Bradley
Senior Lady Blue Flame defensive specialist Maggie Sizemore serves during the championship match against Aiken High School.
Robert Bradley
The Pickens High Lady Blue Flame completed an amazing 37-3 season to take the AAAA volleyball state championship by defeating Aiken High School in three straight sets.
Robert Bradley
PICKENS — The Pickens High School Lady Blue Flame volleyball team came out smoking from the start and defeated the Aiken High School Fighting Green Hornets in three straight sets to win the AAAA State Championship Saturday at Dreher High School in Columbia.
“I can’t quit smiling!” said Lady Blue Flame Head Coach Rikki Owens. “Of course everything is joyful with ALL the girls! We played EXACTLY like we have practiced. It took all 16 players to be ‘All In,’ and that’s the heart and teamwork that we are proud of. We did every game-like scenario possible and were very disciplined from practice. When a timeout was called during the match the girls would say—before I could say anything—‘We accomplished this in practice, so let’s finish this!’
“They put all our practice drills into the actual game, and that is phenomenal. We paid attention to detail and doing things the right way. They showed up and showed out!”
During the state championship match, the Lady Blue Flame jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first set, quieting a raucous Aiken High student section, and rarely trailed in the match. Pickens took the first set 25-17, and then trailed briefly in the second set 2-7. An 8-3 Lady Blue Flame rally knotted the score at 10-10, and Pickens went on to win the second set 25-19.
Pickens kept its collective foot on the gas in the third set, and the Aiken team looked tired and demoralized. With the Lady Blue Flame up 24-11, the Aiken team was penalized a point for being out of rotation, and the championship match was over. After realizing what happened, the Pickens bench emptied onto the court and the team because a large mass of screaming and crying girls!
The Lady Blue Flame ended its 2021 season with an amazing 37-3 record, with all three losses coming against larger 5A schools. One of those losses came to eventual 5A state champion Dorman, and the other two losses were to Mauldin, the team that Dorman eliminated in the 5A tournament.
Incredibly, the Lady Blue Flame completed the playoffs and the championship without dropping a single set. It also finished the regular season 8-0 in Region 1A play and did not lose a single set during region play.
Pickens High School has now won 16 state volleyball championships since 1980. Since 1980, the Lady Blue Flame have never gone more than eight years without winning a state championship, and during the first decade of the 2000s, it captured an unprecedented seven championships, including two three-peats.