Almost every time the volleyball fell in the vicinity of Chatham Central senior Kelsey Hussey Thursday, the student section yelled, “set it up!”
In the Bears’ 3-2 loss to North Moore on senior night, Hussey had set her teammates up for kills like she usually does on a nightly basis. But at the same time, she set a new milestone in her volleyball career.
Hussey reached 1000 career assists in the second set of Chatham Central’s regular season finale. It took her just two seasons to hit the mark.
The Bears’ team captain came into the game with 983 assists, needing only 17 to reach a goal she set for herself before her final year.
Hussey also finished the night with a single-game career-high of 51 assists.
“It’s incredible to me,” Hussey said. “I was a little below halfway to getting it starting this year, so I knew it would be challenging. I just want to thank my teammates most of all because I couldn’t have done it without them.”
Hussey’s 1000th assist came on a lengthy back and forth sequence in which she had set the ball twice before the third attempt ended in a successful kill.
Unlike her mother, Susan Hussey, in the stands, Hussey wasn’t keeping count of her assists on the court. She had no idea she reached the milestone until the crowd erupted with cheers and her teammates held up numbers reading “1000.”
“Her dad and I both are extremely proud of her for being so dedicated and motivated and setting goals like that for herself,” Susan Hussey said.
Hussey is a little over 60 assists away from breaking the school record in career assists. She’ll have more chances with the Mid-Carolina 1A/2A conference tournament and likely the state playoffs to reach it.
“(Hussey’s) given us great effort since she’s been here,” Chatham Central head coach Brett Walden said. “A lot of kids don’t want to be a setter because they really don’t get a lot of fanfare…Putting one on the floor is what gets people out of their seats, but she likes to do the hard work and facilitate the offense for us.”