RALEIGH – Polk County senior Morgan Yoder ended her career Saturday with a pair of individual accomplishments.
Yoder was named the Most Valuable Player of the Wolverines’ 3-0 victory over Perquimans in the state 1A championship game in Reynolds Coliseum. Yoder finished the day with 16 kills, boosting her career total to 1,014.
She is the first Polk County player to reach 1,000 career kills since Reagan Waddell in 2017. Yoder also unofficially recorded her 500th career dig in Saturday’s win.
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LEWIS REPEATS: Polk County’s repeat state championship was not the only back-to-back accomplishment for the Wolverines.
Senior Kylie Lewis was honored prior to the game with the North Carolina Farm Bureau Sportsmanship Award, marking her second straight year to receive that honor.
One player from each finalist is chosen to receive the Sportsmanship Award. Perquimans senior Catherine Howell was honored for the Pirates.
Lewis had five kills in the win, including the match-winning shot in the final set. She wasn’t the only Wolverine involved in pre-match ceremonies – Polk junior Akeela Cunnigham sang the Star-Spangled Banner before the start of play.
FAMILY MATTERS: Perhaps no one in Reynolds Coliseum was more nervous Saturday afternoon than Glenn and Shawn Corhn.
The Corhns are the parents of Polk County head coach Molly Hill, and they put on their Wolverine attire and cheered for Polk as the Wolverines swept to their second state crown.
But that was just half the day’s duties for the duo. The Corhns’ other daughter, Allyson Warren, is an assistant coach at West Henderson, which defeated J.H. Rose in four sets to claim the 3A state crown.
Both Corhns, who are fixtures at Polk County home games, quickly changed their clothes between matches, setting aside their Polk gear for West Henderson attire.
Hill and Warren each also won state championships as players while at West Henderson.
PIRATE DISAPPOINTMENT: Perquimans saw a 24-match winning streak come to an end Saturday, the second state final appearance in three seasons for the program.
Polk County took a 25-15 win in the opening set, but the Pirates appeared poised to take the second stanza, leading 24-22. Two Yoder kills erased that deficit, and the Wolverines went on to take a 27-25 victory in the set.
Letting that second set slip away was just one of the things that Perquimans head coach Kristie Thach regretted about the afternoon.
“That second set, it could have gone either way,” Thach said. “In the first (two), we had the lead, and we just couldn’t hold on to it. Credit them. They’re a great team.
“I didn’t feel like we were in our system very much today. When we were able to get a good pass and run a good tempo, I felt that we were unstoppable. We just couldn’t get in tempo and could’t get our sets where we wanted because our passes were a little off. We were having to just get it in as opposed to really being able to drive it in.”
The Pirates will lose seven seniors, but the return of junior hitters Kaydee Hunter, who troubled Polk County throughout the match, and Morgan Byrum will no doubt give Perquimans a head start on chasing a return trip to Raleigh.
“I thought that being our second time in the last few years that maybe we would be a little more comfortable,” Thach said. “It just didn’t work out.”
