The postseason is here and it’s showtime for the Warlassies

Owen volleyball opens NCHSAA 3A Playoffs in the Swannanoa Valley as No. 2 seed

Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
October 21, 2025

The 2025 Owen Warlassies will open the NCHSAA 3A Volleyball Playoffs, at home, Oct. 21, when the No. 2 seeded team hosts No. 15 Trinity in the second round. Photo by Fred McCormick

An unspoken but likely truth around the 2025 Owen volleyball team has hovered over the court throughout the entire regular season. Of course, the keenly focused head coach in her third year - Nikki Hinson - will not say it, nor will her ultra athletic daughter, middle hitter, outside hitter and defensive specialist, Mia Roland. Setter Kenzie Robinson, seventh in the state in assists, has been far too busy leading her teammates to fire kill shots into open spaces of the floor to notice, and middle hitter Adeline West, who is among the top 10 in N.C. in kill percentage and blocks, is too occupied with constructing roofs over opposing attackers to even care right now. 

However, as the Western Highlands Conference Champion Warlassies take their 20-1 regular season record into the NCHSAA 3A Volleyball Playoffs, beginning at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 21, the No. 2 seeded team representing the Swannanoa Valley has already established itself as the greatest in the school’s 70-year history. 

Led by a core of tight-knit and complementary juniors, Owen opened the campaign with 10 straight victories, in which they dropped a total of three sets. The team’s sole loss of the season came exactly at the halfway mark, when it fell, 3-1, to cross-town rival Asheville Christian Academy, which is itself the No. 1 ranked NCISAA 3A program in the state. The Lions are continuing their own postseason run, hosting Davidson Day School one hour before the Warlassies welcome No. 15 Trinity. 

Roland, West, Robinson, high-flying junior Ava Grant, defensive specialist Payten Brockman, libero Avery Boone and seniors Easton Whitson and Gracyn Farish responded to adversity by reeling off another 10 straight wins, on their way to a 12-0 record in the WHC. The statistical leaders in the conference read like a who’s who of the Owen roster, with West leading the way with a .371 hitting percentage and Roland with the third-best at .294. Roland, who committed to play softball for University of S.C. last September, finished second in the conference with 256 kills, while her co-captain Robinson leads with 639 assists. Grant’s 57 serving aces are also at the top of the leaderboard, along with West’s 113 total blocks. 

Mia Roland, who finished the 2025 regular season in the top three in multiple statistical categories, will lead her team into the postseason, Oct. 21, when No. 2 Owen hosts No. 15 Trinity in the second round of the playoffs. Photo by Fred McCormick

While no official school records exist on the topic, it would be hard to imagine a past Owen team topping the program’s 2025 performance, but people have been looking. MaxPreps, a high school sports website that tracks the team all the way back to the 2007 season shows nothing even close. Hinson’s mother and Roland’s grandmother, Owen alumnus and recent Warren Wilson College Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Debbie Hinson coached the program for 16 years and doesn’t recall anything quite at this level.

Owen assistant principal and athletics administrator, Nathan Padgett, a 1994 graduate of the school, has been wondering since around midseason. He snapped a photo of a 1993 yearbook page heralding that year’s 14-2 team that finished 8-0 in the conference as one of the school’s best ever. With nowhere else to turn, I asked Carl Bartlett, who attended Owen when it opened in 1955, announced Warhorse football games for four decades, chaired the school’s athletics hall of fame for years and is the closest approximation to a living encyclopedia on sports at the school.

He could only remember “that one team” from the 1990s and quickly gave an assertive “yeah,” when asked if this year’s team was likely the greatest assembly of volleyball talent in Owen history.

“We’ve had teams with a couple of outstanding players,” Bartlett said. “But, with this one, it seems like all of them are outstanding.”

It is basically impossible to argue with that point.

Of the 21 games played by the Warlassies during the regular season, I have covered seven of them. Through that sample size of 33%, the team has demonstrated an ability to score points in almost every way imaginable. Of course, the most awe-inspiring method of attack is the above-the-net acrobatics of Roland and Grant, who often lurk on the outside waiting for an opportunity to spike the ball through anxious defenders. West and Farish are each as likely to win a volley with a forceful hit or strategically placed lob between off-balance opponents.

Coordinating much of this is Robinson, whose court awareness must be observed to even attempt to comprehend.

Ava Grant, a high-flying outside hitter for the Warlassies, led the Western Highlands Conference with 57 aces this season. As her team enters the postseason, Oct. 21, she is among several key juniors attempting to continue the best season in the program’s history. Photo by Fred McCormick

Players and coaches have lauded the chemistry of the group, most of whom have played the sport together since their days at Owen Middle School, which coincidentally, is currently enjoying what is likely the best, or at least one of the best seasons in its program’s history.

One of the most impressive things about these Warlassies, however, is that when they are interviewed after a win, none of them want to talk about themselves. They all, without exception, use those moments to shine a spotlight on their teammates.

That camaraderie is something that Hinson, herself a former standout Owen athlete, has fostered from her first season on the sideline in maroon and white. Her approach has created an atmosphere in which multiple talented athletes are willing and often more than able to fill any role at any time, for the betterment of the team.

Owen’s consistency in executing its game plan this year landed the team in the driver’s seat to host home games through at least the first four rounds of the postseason, if they continue their winning ways.

At one match earlier this season, I ran into a reader and community member I had never seen at an Owen athletics event. I inquired as to what brought him out, and he said he read about them in The Valley Echo and wanted to come see what all the hype was about. He was, like most of the many fans who have been there to support the Warlassies in 2025, treated to a thrilling home victory.

The emergence of junior Adeline West as a dominant middle hitter on the Owen roster is among several factors that have lifted the Warlassies to their best regular season performance in the 70-year history of the school. Photo by Fred McCormick

I am not a volleyball expert, by any estimation, but I have covered a lot of it over the years. However, one thing I can be certain of about the sport is that, when played at the level on which Roland, Robinson, West, Grant, and the others have so far, it is one of the most entertaining competitions to watch.

In a couple of different interviews with players, they have expressed how much the home crowd and lively student section in the Owen gymnasium inspires them play even harder, which is great for them but has to be worrisome for opponents. So, if you have plans and you’re able to, cancel them, and if not, tickets are $10 at the door or available for $11 online, through the GoFan app.

As at least one reader is already aware, I am not being hyperbolic when I say an Owen home match, especially in the playoffs, is perhaps one of the most fun things you can do on a week night in the Swannanoa Valley.

So, throw on something maroon and head straight for the border between Black Mountain and Swannanoa tonight. The home stands will be rocking for Owen, and I hope to see you there; it’s guaranteed to be showtime in the Valley.