Photos by Jeff Blake/ColumbiaWeddingPhotos.com Brookland–Cayce’s Ashlan Diaz ser ves against Wilson. After a week with nothing to do except stew about how it ended the regular season, the Brookland– Cayce volleyball team couldn’t wait to start the South Carolina Public High School Class 3A playoffs on Tuesday.

The Bearcats (11–6) unleashed that pent up energy while making very short work of an overmatched squad from Wilson, 25–12, 25–5, 25–9, to advance to a second–round match at home against Hilton Head who defeated Myrtle Beach in a close three–game match.

“We were very eager to play again,” senior Ashlyn Hicks said. “We have confidence that, if we play together, we can beat anybody.”

And if they don’t, they can lose to anybody – a point driven home eight days earlier in a tri–match against fellow Class 3A playoff teams Camden and Lugoff–Elgin.

Brookland–Cayce’s Kacie Silver blocks a volley against Wilson. “No one showed up; we were terrible and lost both badly,” said senior Alley Greer, who plans to play volleyball at Spartanburg Methodist. “Working together is the key. If we do, we expect to go all the way to states. If not, we just fall apart.”

For a team that reached the third round of the playoffs last year and that has been focused since summer conditioning drills on bringing home a state title this year, the wake–up call was unexpected. In addition, the draw offers a potential encounter with Camden in the third round.

After those losses, coach Elaine Remia went to work rebuilding that sense of camaraderie among the six seniors and five juniors and going to work on weaknesses that the losses exposed.

Photos by Jeff Blake/ ColumbiaWeddingPhotos.com B–C’s Ashlyn Hicks sets for a teammate in their playoff game against Wilson Tuesday night. The team also gathered for a “very long meeting,” as Greer described it, in which the players were tougher on themselves than Remia was.

“They have the skills and abilities,” Remia said. “They just need to have the mental toughness. If we have that, we can go all the way.”

That toughness wasn’t needed in the first round. Wilson (5–14) netted three of its first four serves en route to a 5–2 deficit in the first game. Brookland– Cayce steadily pulled away, leading 17–5 and 20–10. “This is the type of match you try to focus on what you need to work on; the things we learned in practice and will need later in the tournament,” Hicks said.

Freshman Sara Henderson’s serves helped give the Bearcats leads of 8–0 and 5–0 to start the final two games, and Brookland– Cayce never looked back.