WALNUT–Walnut Volleyball head coach Kelley Hopper comes up with a different word each year to drive home to her players. This year’s word is “consistency.” And five games into the 2024 season, the Lady Wildcats have been consistently winning.
Tuesday night, the Lady Wildcats won their fifth straight game with a 3-0 sweep of in-county, non-region rival Ripley.
Along with that victory, Walnut ran their consecutive set win streak to 13. Before the game, Hopper didn’t know that her squad hadn’t dropped a set. She probably couldn’t have told you that the Lady Wildcats (5-0) were undefeated. That’s because the veteran coach is only concerned with seeing improvement game by game.
“We’re making progress, but we’ve got a long way to go,” said Hopper. “Our word for the year is ‘consistency.’ I thought we played well tonight, but we’ve got to get more consistent in our sets. That will help our hitters play better.”
The Lady Wildcats led from start to finish against Ripley. The two teams battled in a back-and-forth first set until Walnut surged for a 25-21 win. The Lady Wildcats controlled the next two sets, winning the second set by nine points, 25-16 before closing out the best-of-five match with an 11-point win in the third set, 25-14.
Much of the Walnut scoring came from outside hitters Addison Hicks (10 kills) and Molly-Kate Rolison (7 kills, 3 aces) along with middle hitter Kaylee Estes ( 9 kills, 2 blocks). Josie Meeks, Vivian Brown, and Preslee Robbins set up that trio with a combined 34 assists. Defensively, Robbins led the match with 16 diggs.
Hopper watched her bunch roll past the visiting Lady Tigers, but she didn’t take the victory lightly, noting that the outcome could have easily gone a different way because of Ripley’s talent.
“Ripley has a lot of the right pieces. When they become more comfortable with themselves and gain more confidence, they’re gonna be hard to beat,” said Hopper. “I know we won, but going into the match, I thought it could have gone either way.”
Addi Griffin led Ripley (2-4-1) with 12 assists. Ella Shackleford had a team-high six digs, while Ruthie McCafferty contributed with five kills.
NORTH-HALF REMATCH…
Next for Walnut is a tough road trip to face defending Class 2A champ, Ingomar on Thursday. It’s the first meeting between the two northeast Mississippi volleyball powers since last year’s North Half finals played at Walnut. Ingomar won that matchup before defeating St. Andrew’s in the state finals.
Hopper knows facing a championship program led by one of Mississippi’s top athletes, senior Macie Phifer a two-time MHSAA Miss Volleyball recipient on their home floor won’t be easy, but she welcomes the challenge. She said her concern is not the result, but seeing her squad compete with the consistency she’s preached all summer.
“It’s Ingomar and we know what we get with them. Phifer is fantastic and Ingomar is great,” Hopper said. “But we’re just excited to compete. Our goal is to compete. That’s what we’re here for. If we lose at our best, I’m good. If we win at our best, it’ll be great.”
