Lady Cavaliers Balance Leads to Best Season Ever!

“Balanced,” said Coach Canney when he was asked how to describe the 2022-2023 season for the New Covenant Lady Cavaliers. “This is by far the most balanced team we have had in school history. For example we had six players score 100 or more points this season, as compared to four last season. When it came to rebounds, we had two players with 100 or more rebounds. This season - five! But more than that, as we substituted our players, there was no drop off in production. We truly did not have back up players this year. Just more and more starters!” 

The season started off well for the Lady Cavaliers as they once again won the Cavalier Jamboree by defeating Easley Homeschool and Cambridge Academy in the round robin part of the tournament and then beating Easley Homeschool in the championship. It was a sign of things to come for the Lady Cavaliers. 

On November 17th, the Lady Cavs traveled to Laurens, South Carolina to take on friendly foe Laurens Academy. New Covenant was up by 10 at halftime and at the end of the third quarter and hung on to win 50 to 45. This was the first time the Lady Cavs had defeated the LA Crusaders in program history. Addison Canney led the Lady Cavs with 10 points. In keeping with the theme of being a balanced team, ten different players scored and six different shooters knocked down a three in the game. 

The Lady Cavs rolled through the remainder of their regular season winning their next fourteen games by an average margin of 26 points. The closest game New Covenant had during this stretch was a 19 point victory. With a record of 18-0, the Lady Cavs were set for a SCACS 2A quarterfinal match up with Hampton Park. The winner would advance to the SCACS 2A Final Four in Columbia. During the 2022 season, Hampton Park was the 2A state champion while New Covenant was the 1A state champion.

The game started slowly for the Lady Cavs as they fell behind 25-13 at halftime. New Covenant fought to within three at the start of the 4th quarter but fell behind by seven points with three minutes remaining. Then with about a minute to go in the game, Addison Canney hit a three pointer to tie the game and send it into overtime. Within the first minute of OT Addison hit another three. Buckets by Hadley Johnson and Meredith Milford sealed the victory and the Lady Cavs punched their ticket to the SCACS 2A State Tournament! 

The semifinal matchup was between New Covenant and Northside Christian, which is a SCACS school in North Charleston. The game was a battle from the opening tip as both teams matched up well. The Lady Cavs led by four at halftime, by three at the end of the third quarter and pulled away a little bit in the final eight minutes to win by seven and secure a spot in the championship game. Addison Canney once again led the Lady Cavs with 14 points, including two three pointers. Meredith Mildford knocked down three threes to register nine points and Kate Moore added two threes of her own to help round out the scoring.

The SCACS 2A Championship would be a match up of New Covenant, which was reclassified as a 2A school over the summer with 210 students in grades K-12, against Bob Jones Academy with over 1,000 students in grades K-12. However, each team could only put five players on the court at a time and the balance of New Covenant’s top eleven players would prove too much for BJA.

The first quarter was a back and forth affair with BJA taking a four point lead early. The Lady Cavs battled back but still trailed 17-14 at the end of the first frame. New Covenant took control in the second quarter and never looked back as they outscored Bob Jones in each of the three remaining periods to secure a 53-39 win and bring home the first 2A State Championship in school history to complement the six 1A basketball State Championships the school has won (four by the boys and two by the girls). 

Addison Canney dropped 17 points to lead all scorers in the game but she was not alone. Meredith Milford and St Claire Rowland both added eight points, while Hadley Johnson scored seven and added nine rebounds and Kylee Asbell contributed with six points.

The win moved the Lady Cavaliers to 21-0 on the season. This was surprising because of the 15 players on the varsity roster only one was a senior, Carley Shore. Unfortunately Carley had to miss the season with an injury, meaning New Covenant only had two upperclassmen on the roster with juniors Hadley Johnson and Lauren Landis. Addison Canney was the only sophomore, meaning the other 11 players were freshmen (9) or 8th graders (2). 

In every other season of Lady Cavalier basketball, the SCACS state tournament would have been the final act. However, in the fall of 2021 Coach Canney learned about the National Christian School Athletic Association (NCSAA). New Covenant joined the NCSAA for the 2021-2022 school year, but did not participate in any of their events. For the 2022-2023 season Coach Canney decided to enter their national basketball tournament. As Coach recently explained, “I knew, Lord willing, that for the next two seasons (this one and next) I would have essentially the same team. I decided to enter us in the NCSAA tournament as something in addition to SCACS. I thought we could check it out this year, and then maybe try to do well next year. Little did I know.”

The Lady Cavs and their parents headed to Mount Vernon Nazarene University in Mount Vernon, Ohio on Wednesday, March 1st for the NCSAA National Tournament. The tournament organizes all of the schools into divisions. New Covenant was placed in Division III/IV with 7 other schools. Each team played an opening round game. The four winners were placed in Division III. The other four schools were placed in Division IV.

New Covenant’s opening round game was against Tri State Christian from Maryland. The Lady Cavs came out hot as Stephanie Landis and Meredith Milford hit back to back threes to open the game and New Cov never looked back. The score was 42-13 at the half and 72-28 at the end of the game. Meredith led the way with a school record seven made three pointers to end up with 28 points, one off the school record. Kate Moore swished three threes of her own to add 10 points and Addison Canney handed out 7 assists.

The semi-final round saw the Lady Cavs matched up against Rockford Christian Life School from Illinois. The game was back and forth for much of the first half. New Covenant took a 13 point lead into the fourth quarter and wound up winning by eight points, 60-52. Hadley Johnson and Addison Canney both had 17 points, while Meredith contributed three more threes to help her score 12 points. 

The win moved the now 23-0 Lady Cavs on to the NCSAA Division III championship game against Broadfording Christian Academy. The Lady Cavs knew this would be a tough match up as Broadfording was an outstanding team. Things did not look good for New Covenant as they trailed by as many as seven and were down five at both half time and the end of the third period. The Lady Cavs would not, however, be denied. First, St Claire Rowland stepped up to the defensive challenge of guarding Broadfording’s best player. St Claire guarded and harassed their star shooting guard into absolute frustration and fatigue that was crucial for the win. Then on two separate occasions, NCS was down three points only to have Norah Johnson knock down a clutch three to tie the score. Then, down one point late in the game, Addison Canney stepped to the free throw line to coolly make both shots from the charity stripe. Soon after Meredith Milford hit a dagger of a three pointer that broke the hopes and hearts of Broadfording and the Lady Cavs put the finishing touches on a perfect 24-0 season by adding a NCSAA Division III Championship banner to their trophy collection with a 41-37 win.

The season was an amazing success for the New Covenant Lady Cavaliers. Some of the highlights include…

• The team was led by captains Hadley Johnson, Lauren Landis, and Addison Canney.

• Addison Canney, Hadley Johnson, and Meredith Milford earned All Conference honors for SCACS.

• Addison Canney and Hadley Johnson earned All State Tournament Team honors at the SCACS 2A State Tournament.

• Meredith Milford, Addison Canney, and Hadley Johnson earned NCSAA All Tournament Team honors. 

• Addison Canney led the team in scoring with 232 points for 10.1 points per game.

• Meredith Milford made 46 threes on the season establishing a school career record for made threes with 96. 

• Anna Grace Jachens led the team with 159 rebounds. 

• St Claire Rowland led the team with 69 steals and 67 assists.

• Kate Moore made 29 threes on the season, second highest on the team. 

• With potentially the entire team returning for the 2023-2024 season, things look bright for the Lady Cavs. However, the team is focused on enjoying and celebrating the Lord’s goodness and kindness to them this past season. 

Lady Cavs in Action

Men Cavs in Action

All State Girls

Ada Sharpe (2nd)

Meredith Milford (4th)

St. Claire Rowland (5th)

All State Boys

Truman Rowland (2nd)

Charlie Simpson (6th)

Luke Simpson (8th)

Cavaliers Enter Partnership with PGC Basketball Camps

To enhance opportunities for skills development and to improve knowledge and wisdom about the game of basketball, NCS has entered into a partnership with PGC Basketball Camps.

Find out more here!

Cross Country

The cross country program was started in 2016 and has experienced great success! The program consists of boys and girls in grades 6th through 12th and competes as part of the South Carolina Association of Christian Schools (SCACS). In addition to running against SCACS’s school, the New Covenant runners have raced in some of the biggest cross country races in the state against some of the best runners in the Southeast. New Covenant Cross Country has consistently placed runners in the top 10 at the SCACS State Championship Meet and has placed in the top 3 for the boys and girls teams.

Basketball for Boys

The boys basketball program was started in 2015 for boys at New Covenant in grades 6th through 12th. After competing the first season as an independent, New Covenant School and all its athletic teams joined the South Carolina Association of Christian Schools. Once in SCACS the boys program immediately rose to the top finishing the 2016-2017 season undefeated and winning its first SCACS 1A State Championship. The program followed that season with another State Championship to conclude the 2017-2018 season and then an improbable run to a third consecutive State Championship in 2018-2019. In addition to the success at the varsity level, the Cavaliers JV boys team won a SCACS JV State Championship in 2019.

Basketball for Girls

The girls basketball program was started in 2015. After competing the first season as an independent, New Covenant School and all its athletic teams joined the South Carolina Association of Christian Schools. The girls varsity team surprised many by winning its region and making the State Championship game its first season in SCACS. The program continued to improve and brought home its first State Championship in 2018 after an outstanding 18-2 season. The girls program is available to students in grades 6th through 12th and continues to seek to improve and bring glory to Christ through the game of basketball.

Volleyball for Girls

The girls volleyball program was started in 2018 for girls at New Covenant in grades 6-12. The team plays in the South Carolina Association of Christian Schools league. When the program was started in 2018, 12 girls joined the inaugural team for JV and varsity. Of those 12 girls only 3 had ever played volleyball before. It was exciting to watch those girls learn the skills, the strategy of volleyball, and becoming a team on the court! For the 2019 season, the program saw 8 returners and 10 new players, 7 of which were 6th graders, join the program. It was a season for varsity building on their skills, strategy, and team play and for JV learning the skills and game! It was exciting to see improvement in all areas and for the teams to experience success as they persevered and worked hard each day at practice and games! The first 2 seasons have built a solid foundation for the program and it is an exciting time as the program will now see the majority being returning players with new players coming in with a solid foundation already set!! The best is yet to come for New Covenant Lady Cavs Volleyball!!