By Mike London
Salisbury Post
CHINA GROVE — Carson volleyball has been to the mountaintop and played twice for the state championship.
West Rowan and South Rowan have made serious playoff runs, but no Rowan County volleyball program other than Carson has been in that position of playing on the final day of the season.
East Rowan and NC State graduate Kelan Rogers is still the head coach of the Cougars, although the former science teacher has been a retiree from the school system for a few years.
Rogers is one of the all-time coaches in the state. He came into the 2025 season with 780 career wins, all achieved at West Davidson or Carson. He’s coached 352 wins since leaving the Green Dragons for Carson in 2009.
This is a season in which the Cougars have a chance to match the feats of the 2013 and 2014 teams that were Western Regional champs and lost to Cardinal Gibbons in 3A championship matches.
Rogers rarely comes right out and says he’s got a championship-caliber team, but he’ll hint at it. He’s hinting this year.
“This is not one of those years where we’re trying to win 10,” he said. “This is one of those years where we hope to win 25 or 30. We were young two years ago. We were kind of middle-aged last year. Now we’re old, seniors and juniors. We are at the point where we hope to reap some rewards for the work that’s been put in.”
Carson was 27-6 last season, and there was a stretch after the Cougars hit their stride when the won 21 out of 22 matches. The Cougars didn’t run out of steam until they traveled to West Henderson. They won a set there, but West Henderson eliminated them and went on to win the 3A state championship.
Carson (8-2) has lost twice already, once to a South Carolina team, both in a weekend tournament early in the season, but it seems unlikely that the Cougars will lose to many 5As this season. There are quality teams in the SPC capable of beating them if they have a really good day while Carson has a bad day, but there’s not much doubt Carson is going to be tough to handle.
“It’s not like we’ve played any perfect matches,” Rogers said. “But we’ve played all right. We should be pretty good.”
The key loss from last season was libero Kaylee Thonen, who is now on the team at Barton College. Thonen made a ton of digs and also provided most of the leadership. That leadership may have to be provided by committee now, but Carson has an awful lot of juniors and seniors.
The five girls who got most of the kills in 2024 are all back, and they all were lethal last season. Now they’ve got another year of experience. That’s Reese Joyner, Tasean Perkins and Piper Thonen, Kaylee’s younger and taller sister, on the outside, and Katy Falkowski and Riley Wilhite in the middle.
Joyner, Falkowski and Wilhite are seniors. Perkins and Thonen, who usually will be in the role of right side hitter, are juniors.
Joyner is the most special of a special group, as she’s a 5-foot-10 girl who is a really talented track high jumper. She can get up high. All five are either extra athletic or extra powerful — or both— so Carson should be able to hit with anyone in the new 5A alignment.
Rylee Hedrick is an athletic setter with some size, some touch and some bounce and makes the decisions on who gets the kill. She’ll try to keep them all happy. The junior volleyball/basketball/track standout is one of the county’s top year-round athletes.
The job of stepping in for Kaylee Thonen at libero falls to senior Alana Herring, who has been a steady player as a defensive specialist. Those are big sneakers to fill, but Herring has a lot of experience. Carson also still has senior Chloe Webster playing back row defense and serving. She’s never made many mistakes.
Senior Hailey Moose can fill in at last three different positions.
The other girls who will get chances to help are back row defenders — Carmen Graham, Ariel Keaton and Aleah McCallum.
SPC play started for the Cougars on Tuesday against Salsibury.
