Friday Night Lights in fall means girls’ volleyball action at Delmarva Christian. In the Royals' Sept. 25 match against Woodbridge, both teams picked up the intensity for four sets of back-and-forth scoring. The Royals fended off an energetic Blue Raiders squad 3-1 to move to 4-2 on the year.

“That's the game of volleyball, right?” coach Kelly Duffy said. “Any team, any given day, and our kids rose to the occasion to make sure that they were able to close this out. Despite many of the sets having come-from-behind situations, they were able to defeat it and turn it around, so I couldn't be happier with what they were able to do today.”

The Royals' roll began in the third set when they were trailing Woodbridge in the rubber-band frame. Duffy played the set close to the chest and made sure to call time-outs at the right time to recenter the ladies. No matter the score, the energy is present with this team and the focus is on their coach. Trusting in one another paid off.

“One thing they've shown all season is resilience,” Duffy said. “It's easy for us to play up to the level of competition, but we have to find a place where we're setting the bar moving forward; Woodbridge was a competitive team tonight, and we have to be prepared for that on our side of the court as well.”

Something seemed to click, and despite Woodbridge refusing to back down, the Royals were on a mission.

“We realized that we can actually beat this team, and we realized that if we just work on the little details – defense, staying on our toes on offense and hitting – we realized that we could actually come together as one,” Jones said.

Delmarva Christian secured the tie-breaking set and rattled off a nail-biting 26-24 win in the fourth set for a 3-1 victory. While celebrations were consistent, the winning point, from Jones, led to the ultimate celebration for the day.

“Our whole team worked so hard, so getting that last point felt deserved,” Jones said. “We communicated a lot and we were driving together.”

The Royals advanced to 4-2 as they approach the midway point of the 15-game season, and while it is a squad-strong game, a few girls stood out in the victory.

“It's a team effort, and at the end of the day nobody has a perfect game,” Duffy said. “Morgan [Stevenson] on defense always holds it down for us, pretty consistently Kinley [Doughty] stepped up in the middle in a big way, as well as Katie [Jones] offensively for us, and Emily Potter moved into the back row when we needed some extra defensive help.”