Royals volleyball falls to Force 3-0
Delmarva Christian’s volleyball season came to an end Oct. 31 with a 25-18, 25-14, 25-15 loss to Wilmington Charter at the Smyrna High School gymnasium. The Royals end their season at 13-4.
The Royals could not get into their system, as the Force demonstrated why they were the 2018 DIAA state champions, teaming for 35 kills and eight aces in the three-set match.
Sierra Troyer, Mia Berger, Makayla Heinrichs, Ashlyn Stonebraker, Savannah Stewart and Olivia Giltner combined for 20 kills in the match for the Royals. Stonebraker assisted on 19 points, while Grace Fetterman bumped 10 digs. Stewart roofed two blocks.
“I wouldn’t trade any of my four years on this team for anything in the world,” Stonebraker said. “I’ve been able to have the success that I’ve had because of the girls around me. Each year we’ve had a solid core. Everybody was willing to pick up everybody. We’ve always been there for each other. We just love each other so much, and I think that’s that’s our strongest thing, so it’s bittersweet to see this season end. The state tournament is a big stage, and we have a younger team, so as they get older, they will get used to this stage and they will be able to step up when the competition gets tough.”
“Congratulations to Charter on a great year,” said Royals coach Jim Berger. “They are well coached and they are the defending state champs, and they did a great job tonight. They outplayed us in every aspect of the game. I have to congratulate our girls for an awesome season. They have won four straight ESIAC championships, but we still haven’t figured out how to play our best volleyball in the biggest moments. We were out of system all night with Charter’s aggressive serving, and we couldn’t get our offense going because we were out of system so much.
“Our energy was somewhat down. Quite honestly, we were expecting a home game, and we were really excited about the 12th seed and expecting to play at home with our home crowd, which is a whole different atmosphere than what we experienced tonight. Unfortunately, that wasn’t afforded to us. We are a young team and have inexperience in certain spots, but I feel the younger girls played just as well as the upperclassmen. We couldn’t get any runs and get momentum because of Charter’s aggressive serving.”
“We played well,” said Charter head coach Dave Stover, whose team went 5-9 during the regular season. “It’s the first time in 20 years we were below .500 during the season, so this was a good win.”
Charter played in the DIAA second round against Archmere Nov. 2 at Tatnall, losing 0-3.
