Arendell Parrott’s Virginia Edmondson goes up for the kill against Coastal Christian Wednesday. Photo by William ‘Bud’ Hardy / Neuse News

By Junious Smith III

Wednesday may have been a wakeup call for Arendell Parrott Academy.

The Patriots started strong against Coastal Christian, but fell in a 23-25, 22-25, 25-19, 25-14, 18-16 thriller. APA (12-2) won 10 straight prior to Wednesday’s match, hadn’t dropped a set since Aug. 10 and had a 2-0 lead, but the Centurions (11-4) roared back for the victory.

“There’s a list of about five or six teams that if you don’t play your best, you’re going to get beat,” APA head coach David Barnes said. “We played good, but we had some players who didn’t play as good as they normally do. We’ll either build off of this loss and it will make us better, or we’ll sink and play worse.

“Hopefully, today was a great wakeup call to spur us to play harder, practice harder and get better as individuals.”

The Patriots started the game up 9-0, but Coastal Christian fought back to tie it at 11. The Centurions took a 15-14 advantage on a Sadie Luscher service ace, but Mackenzie Pope’s kill sparked a 5-0 run by APA, punctuated with a Jorja Tuten ace. Coastal Christian took a 22-21 lead, but Alli Grant Avery followed with a kill and a block before Pope’s ace to regain control. A missed serve by Coastal Christian gave the Patriots the set.

In the second, Coastal Christian jumped out to an 11-4 lead highlighted by two kills each from Anna Dudley Wetherill and Kelly McConekey, but Parrott fought back to tie the game at 12 after Lauren Richardson’s spike. Coastal Christian would eventually go up 21-18, but APA closed the set on a 7-1 run highlighted by two Avery kills to push the Centurions to the brink.

In the third set, Gisell Cervantes’ service ace gave APA a 10-7 advantage, but Coastal Christian exploded for an 11-1 run, including a McConekey ace and Wetherill kill. The Patriots wouldn’t get closer than three in the set and never had a lead in the fourth as the Centurions took over behind three Kora Beth Witzenman aces and three Wetherill kills. McConekey’s ace ended the set and forced the fifth.

Avery’s ace tied the fifth set at 5, but Coastal Christian scored the next three, highlighted by Wetherill’s kill. Another Wetherill kill gave Coastal Christian a match point at 14-13, but Avery had a kill of her own to tie it up. The Patriots staved off a second match point, then had one of their own at 16-15 before Witzenman’s block tied it up.

McConekey would record a kill on the next point and the Centurions closed it out on the third attempt.

“It came down to us wanting it more, and that’s what we talked about,” Coastal Christian coach Dudley Raye said. “We have a group of seniors who knew this was their last chance to beat Parrott and we focused on our team strategy instead of them. We have great hitters — the biggest thing for us was being able to play defense, pass and serve well.”

The Patriots will have a quick turnaround with a matchup against Cary Christian on the road Thursday.