Kenston Forest School’s varsity girls volleyball team finished the 2018 season with an 11-19 overall record, making it seem like a rough year, but the Lady Kavaliers punctuated the campaign with an outstanding run in the conference tournament and netted multiple all-conference accolades.

Holding the No. 4 seed in the tourney, the Lady Kavs beat No. 5 Southampton Academy and then toppled No. 1 Brunswick Academy in the semifinals before falling to No. 2 Amelia Academy in the final.

“To be honest with you … I didn’t expect them to make it to where they did,” Kenston Forest Head Coach Jannon Coley said. “They pulled it together, they played hard and they did more, I think, than anybody thought they would. I had seven seniors, one who hadn’t played in two years. The other girls were on the team last year, the other six, but technically, they didn’t get to play that much because I had a roster of almost 15 girls last year.”

Helping lead the team this year were actually two freshmen, middle hitter Shelby Gunn and libero Taylor Maione, each of which made the All-Virginia Colonial Conference (VCC) First Team.

“Shelby was in the top five for hitting in the conference and blocking … and Taylor was actually No. 1 in the conference for digs,” Coley said.

Gunn finished the year with 143 kills, 122 service points, 144 digs and 72 blocks.

Maione, who also made the all-tournament team along with senior middle hitter Samantha Gunn, recorded 113 service points, 233 receptions and 285 digs for the year.

Senior setter Rachel Moore made the all-VCC second team and VCC all-academic team.

She ended up with 174 service points, 56 kills, 186 assists and 223 digs for the season.