To truly appreciate just how far Winston Academy volleyball has come over the years, look no further than the program’s timeline.
Candice Cefalu is a WA graduate who starred in multiple sports, but never played volleyball. The school entrusted in the full-time pharmacist to run its upstart volleyball program in 2019 and she obliged. The first two seasons were all about learning the game for both Cefalu and her team. She studied YouTube videos, researched rules and schemes online and even brought in Mississippi State volleyball players to help with her team’s development.
Wins and losses weren’t paramount in 2019 or 2020, but the building blocks were taking shape. By last season, the team had begun to really break through. Two players were named to the state’s All Star team and the Lady Patriots made history with wins over a few teams they had never beaten.
In year five, WA won its first state tournament game last week. Then it won its second. Suddenly, it found itself playing for a state championship last Wednesday.
“Going into the year, I don’t think the state championship was even on their mind,” Cefalu shared. “Towards the end of the season, they started believing in themselves. It was a consensus that we could do it. That’s going to help them so much in the future.”
WA knocked off Heritage Christian Academy out of Picayune and West Memphis in Arkansas in the first two rounds of the Class III state tournament at Mississippi College and earned itself a spot in the state title against two-time defending champion Regents of Oxford. Though WA would come up short, it was a major step forward for a program that has been steadily building every single season since its inception.
In game one of the tournament, WA played Heritage and won 25-12, 25-7 and 25-18 in straight-sets to move forward in the tournament and make history with the team’s first-ever playoff win. Layton Nowell led the way with 13 kills in the match with six kills coming from Braley Dickerson and another five from Jillian Sims. Emma Grace Loper had six service aces and added another eight assists.
A much more competitive match came in round two against West Memphis, though the Lady Pats handled that one in straight sets as well. WA won 25-22, 25-12 and then 27-25. Dickerson had 15 kills and Nowell 10 in the win with Chloe Hillyer finishing with six kills. Maggie Burns had 20 assists and four aces and Sims eight digs while Loper had 13 assists.
That set up the decisive matchup with Regents for a state title. Regents has been a power in the state over the last few years and won the last two state titles in the classification. Earlier in the year, the Lady Pats played Regents in a straight sets loss in which they were defeated 25-9, 25-10 and 25-9.
While the match would end the same, it was much more competitive. WA battled the heavy favorites to a 25-21 first set defeat and faced an uphill battle the rest of the way. Regents won 25-10 and 25-15 to take home a three-peat.
“Going in, I knew we would have to play a flawless game. We played them one of the first games of the season and we didn’t score 10 points in a set against them,” Cefalu said. “Our adrenaline was too much in the first set but I think once we settled in, I thought we had a chance. Unfortunately, their serves got the best of us.”
Nowell ended her career with five kills in the match while Dickerson also had five kills. Sims had 12 digs and Burns had five assists.
It was a tough end to the season, but the Lady Pats had a year to remember. Finishing 12-14 on the year, it didn’t tell the story of just how good this WA team was. Cefalu tested her team with one of the toughest schedules in the MAIS with the likes of MRA, Jackson Academy, Lamar, Jackson Prep, Presbyterian Christian, Choctaw County, Simpson and many others on the schedule. It made her team better and prepared them for the matches that mattered.
After five years, now it’s apparent that this is a program built to last. Cefalu will certainly miss her amazing seniors like Nowell, Loper and Hillyer, but there are plenty of talented players returning and a group of players all the way down in junior high that are learning from the ground up how to be volleyball players.
“This year all of the girls were focused on the same thing. There wasn’t a single time that a kid came up to me and asked about their stats. It was always about getting the win,” Cefalu said. “Looking back at the first year, we were doing good to get it over the net.
“Last year, we implemented our new offense and defense and this year we’ve been watching film and learning players’ tendencies. A lot of that is girls buying into us. We were blessed this year with our team and I can’t say enough how thankful I am for this season.”
