Royals volleyball stings Hornets in four sets

The Delmarva Christian volleyball team kept its postseason hopes alive Oct. 23 with a 21-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-17 victory over the Tatnall School.

Before the match, the Royals celebrated seniors Allie Munro, Addy Benjamin, Maggie Kwiatkowski and Tobi Robinson.

Royals junior Elaina Millaway posted 23 kills, 22 digs and three aces. Taylor Lowe knocked down 10 kills. Benjamin had a career-best seven kills and five digs as she controlled the right side of the net. Kwiatkowski put up 27 assists. Khushi Patel had 15.

“I was excited to win on Senior Night,” said Kwiatkowski. “Our energy was great.”

“We started the first set a little cold,“ said Benjamin. “It’s like we had to warm up all over again in the game because of the pregame ceremony. We had to play our game, and we did it.”

“Going into the second set, we had to get our energy up,” said Robinson. “It’s really exciting to be able to win tonight and possibly go to states.”

“It means a lot to us to win on Senior Night,” said Munro. “We may get down after losing a few points, but we all work together to bring us back up.”

“After the first set, we talked about keeping the energy up,” said coach Mike Zampini. “In the third set, they were starting to understand what they needed to do, like moving the ball around. In the fourth set, we were serving to spots, and that helped us a lot. They stepped up their game. They want to go to the playoffs.”

The Royals closed out the regular season with a 25-21, 25-12, 25-20 victory over Red Lion Christian Academy Oct. 25 to move to 8-7 on the season. They’re waiting to hear if they made the state tournament. 

Millaway led the Royals with 15 kills and 14 digs. Kwiatkowski assisted on 19 points, and had eight kills and four aces. Patel helped on 13 points and served four aces. Robinson had 14 digs.