Jacksonville volleyball’s Catherine Flatt is pleased.
The longtime coach smiled when asked how happy she was about her Cardinals winning 10 of their first 12 matches following Thursday’s four-set home victory over East Duplin.
“Being 10-2, we would definitely have taken that,” Flatt said. “I’m proud of how they’re rising to the occasion.”
The Cardinals only two defeats are a three-set loss to Laney (8-0) on Aug. 25 and a three-set loss to Topsail (7-3) on Wednesday.
Following the match with Topsail, Jacksonville had to turn quickly around and prepare for East Duplin (6-3), which fell in five sets to the Cardinals on Aug. 27.
The second meeting between the Panthers and Cardinals saw Jacksonville win the first two sets 25-20 and 25-19, fall 16-25 in the third and capture the fourth 25-22.
Jacksonville has already surpassed last year’s eight-win total and the team is three victories shy of matching the 2023 victory total. The most wins the Cardinals have had in recent seasons came in 2016 when they went 15-4.
“We’ve experienced a lot of growing pains, but we’ve made some changes, and the girls have handled themselves well,” Flatt said. “Even under pressure … they stay composed and work their way around things.”
Jacksonville’s senior captains are also pleased.
“All of these girls are pretty good, everybody worked in the offseason, and everybody meshes very well,” senior Athena Teel said. “Our defense is really good, and we are always in the right places.”
Senior Lakota Flatt agreed.
“We all have different types of mentalities and different ways we play, and we piece it together like a puzzle,” she said. “It brings the whole team together.”
Lakota Flatt and Teel are the two team leaders, but they are complemented by several teammates.
Senior Isabella Hernandez and junior Hailey Mahouchick join Flatt are team leaders in digs, junior Mckenzie Riddle helps Teel with the assists while senior Kasyn Griffey, sophomores Lydia Lee and Abigayle Valentin and freshmen Kaydence Clemmons and Leah Bartley also contribute.
But while the Cardinals are happy with their play, they know there is still work to be done before their next game Sept. 15 at home against New Bern (5-3) to open Big Carolina 6-A/7-A Conference play.
“We are going to do over some defense and some little things we need to correct,” Catherine Flatt said. “We want to be fully ready for New Bern.”
The Cardinals believe they will be ready.
“I actually think not having a game next week will be really good for our team because we will have time to break down all the things we need to work on,” Teel said. “Some of our nonconference games pointed out all the things we need to work on.”
Lakota Flatt seconded that.
“We will need to work on our coverage and our blocking is important, especially when we play very big teams like J.H. Rose or D.H. Conley,” she said. “So, we will be working on that. The past few weeks we’ve been pushing three games every week so next week will give us time to recuperate and work on things we need to work on.”
Chris Miller can be contacted via email at cmiller@jdnews.com. Follow him on X @jdnsports.