BUIES CREEK, N.C. — The Manteo High girls volleyball team saw its deepest run in years end one step short on Saturday, as top-seeded Cherokee swept Manteo in three sets to claim the N.C. 2A state crown at Campbell University.
Cherokee took the opening set 26-24 in the closest game of the night, then held on to win the next two by matching 25-20 margins inside Gore Arena.
Manteo entered the bracket as the No. 2 seed. Its path to the final ran through a comeback against Camden County on Oct. 27, when the team dropped the first two sets and then won three straight to advance.
The championship loss leaves the Outer Banks squad at 20-4 for the fall, a season that carried a Dare County program all the way to the final weekend of the state playoffs.
The opener was a tug of war. The lead changed hands repeatedly, the score was knotted 13 different times, and neither team ever pulled more than three points clear. Manteo jumped to an early 5-2 edge, but Cherokee went in front 8-7 and did not trail again the rest of the night.
The title is the first in volleyball for Cherokee, which finished 30-7. The win completed a long climb for a program that went winless in four seasons between 2015 and the 2020-21 school year and was 4-104 over that span.
Nearly 480 miles separate the two schools, with Cherokee in the western mountains and Manteo on the northeast coast. The state association slotted the 2A final for 1:30 p.m. Saturday as part of a two-day, eight-match championship schedule at Gilbert Craig Gore Arena, and this fall marks the first time Campbell has hosted the volleyball finals.
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