Jacksonville’s Kasyn Griffey didn’t have a hard time finding words to describe the Cardinals’ performance in their first match in 12 days.

“We played great and we played really well together,” the senior said. “Our communication was good and our defense was good. We played way better than we had before. We just flowed.”

The Cardinals certainly played one of, if not their best game this season Tuesday night in a 25-22, 25-20, 25-13 home win over New Bern to open Big Carolina Conference 6-A/7-A Conference play.

Senior Lakota Flatt recorded 19 digs and 11 assists, senior Athena Teel netted 12 kills and 12 digs, senior Izabella Hernandez collected 22 digs and Griffey added nine kills and eight digs. Junior Hailey Mahouchick notched 13 digs, junior McKenzie Riddle dished out 13 assists and freshman Kaydence Clemmons added seven kills.

The win for Jacksonville (11-2, 1-0) over New Bern (7-4, 0-1) marked the Cardinals’ first match since a four-set home win over East Duplin on Sept. 3.

“We did a lot of drills in practice,” Hernandez said. “I think that’s what we needed.”

Jacksonville coach Catherine Flatt agreed last week was productive.

“We worked a lot on reading and on making good choices,” she said. “We are moving in the right direction … and we saw that today.”

In the process, Jacksonville topped a team that defeated the Cardinals twice last year.

“New Bern is a very good team, and there were some points that were tight,” Catherine Flatt said. “We just needed to reset sometimes and restructure our blocking game to where our defense was reading the plays. We were able to do that and stay ahead of the game.”

Just one of the things the Cardinals worked on last week.

“We all worked on defense and communication,” Griffey said. “And it showed in the game.”

But while the Cardinals have momentum, they know they face a daunting task playing at J.H. Rose (13-3, 2-0) on Thursday. The Rampants are the defending state 6-A champion.

“We definitely need to keep working on our serve receive and our coverage,” Griffey said. “But we will keep the energy up.”

Chris Miller can be contacted via email at cmiller@jdnews.com. Follow him on X @jdnsports.