Cupcakes, smiles and wins for West Bladen volleyball teams

BLADENBORO – It was a time for cupcakes and smiles after a trying week for the West Bladen volleyball team ended with a sweep of Whiteville on Thursday at The Castle.

Makenna Thurman had five service aces and four kills and Greer Pope and Natalie Sykes combined for 28 assists as the Knights beat Whiteville 25-19, 25-12, 25-19 in a Southeastern Conference match.

“I think they did great,” West Bladen coach Jessica Rhodes said. “This has been a tough week for us and they’ve stepped up and stepped into different positions and different roles that they’re not used to, but they’ve really put themselves out there and worked together to make it work.”

The Knights (11-2, 5-1 Southeastern) were coming off their first conference loss Tuesday at conference leader South Brunswick and were playing their second consecutive game without Emmy Bryant and Jaylyn Clark, who were injured in a vehicle accident recently, but attended Thursday’s victory.

“No time is a good time to have players out, but this week was really a tough week for it to happen,” Rhodes said. “I think looking into next week, hopefully, we’ll get ourselves back to some normalcy.”

As for the cupcakes, they were for head junior varsity coach and assistant varsity coach Nikki Bryant, who was celebrating her birthday. She was serenaded after both the JV and varsity matches. Cupcakes were brought out after each contest.

Pope had 15 assists and three tip kills and Sykes had 13 assists, a pair of push kills, a kill and service for the Knights.

West Bladen and Whiteville played on even terms until late In the first set. The Knights scored the final four points for a 25-19 win with the final point coming when Pope’s serve couldn’t be returned.

In the second set, Thurman’s eight consecutive service points, which included an ace, two unreturnable serves and pair of winning returns by Kimberly Dowless, gave the Knights a 16-5 lead which led to a 25-12 win.

West Bladen never trailed in the third set, but were tied by the Wolfpack at 14-all. The Knights led 20-18 before scoring five of the final six points to win the set 25-19.

Also on the West Bladen scoresheet were Kali Allen (2 digs, 2 push kills), Dowless (4 kills, block, dig, assist), Shanna Lewis (2 aces, 3 digs), Breena Hester (ace), Halaina Conklin (ace, 2 kills, dig) and Tahlela Bethea (2 kills, block).

JV: West Bladen 2, Whiteville 0

The Knights remained unbeaten in Southeastern Conference play with a 25-9, 25-7 victory against the Wolfpack.

Kynslie Kinlaw had four kills, a dig and eight assists for West Bladen (9-2, 4-0 Southeastern). Other players on the scoresheet were Berkleigh Guy (ace, dig, 15 assists), Chloe Walters (2 digs), Vera Valentiner (2 kills), Bristol Allen, (ace, 2 kills), Maycee Kinlaw (3 kills) and Hadley Dove (dig, assist).