09/06/2026
THREE SEASONS. THREE CROWNS. ONE HISTORIC YEAR.
Abingdon Lady Falcons complete unprecedented VHSL championship sweep in volleyball, basketball and softball
By Mountain 7 Sports Report
There are great athletic seasons, there are historic athletic seasons, and then there is what the Abingdon Lady Falcons accomplished during the 2025-26 school year.
Fall brought a state championship in volleyball. Winter produced the first girls basketball state championship in school history. Then, in the spring, an unbeaten softball team finished the job.
Three sports. Three VHSL Class 3 state championships. One school year.
And the achievement was even more remarkable than simply sweeping three Class 3 titles. Published accounts of the accomplishment identify Abingdon as the first program in Virginia High School League history to win state championships in volleyball, girls basketball and softball during the same school year. In other words, it had never been done in Class 3 — and apparently had never been done in any VHSL classification.
For a school in far Southwest Virginia, competing against programs from throughout the Commonwealth, the Lady Falcons didn't merely have a memorable year. They authored a chapter of Virginia high school sports history.
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VOLLEYBALL — THE FIRST PIECE OF THE TRIPLE CROWN
It began in November.
Abingdon entered the Class 3 volleyball championship match with unfinished business — and perhaps the most difficult possible opponent standing in the way.
Christiansburg was undefeated entering the state final and had been responsible for all three of Abingdon's losses during the season, including a 3-1 victory over the Falcons in the Region 3D championship.
None of that mattered when the two met again in Salem.
Under first-year head coach Alexis Perkins, Abingdon finally solved the Blue Demons, winning the state championship 3-1. The Falcons captured the opening set 27-25, took the third 25-20 and closed the championship with a 25-21 fourth-set victory. The triumph gave Abingdon its first volleyball state title since 1983 and completed a remarkable 32-3 season.
The championship match belonged in large part to two of Southwest Virginia's elite athletes.
Senior Gracie Statzer delivered a monster performance: 20 kills, 26 digs and six blocks, while Annsley “A.J.” Trivette matched her with 20 kills and 10 blocks. Together, they formed a front-line combination Christiansburg could not overcome.
Statzer's championship performance was an appropriate ending to a decorated career. She surpassed 1,000 career kills, earned first-team all-state honors and was named the 2025 Mountain 7 District Player of the Year. Trivette joined her as a first-team all-state selection, while setter Ava Kiser reached the 1,000-career-assist milestone.
Abingdon's state tournament run also demonstrated that the final was no fluke. The Falcons defeated Liberty Christian 3-1 in the quarterfinals and swept Kettle Run 3-0 in the semifinals before finally taking down the one team they had been unable to beat all season.
The first championship trophy was headed back to Abingdon.
Nobody yet knew it was merely the beginning.
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BASKETBALL — FROM FOURTH PLACE TO STATE CHAMPIONS
If the volleyball championship was about finally overcoming a nemesis, the basketball championship was about transformation.
The Lady Falcons did not spend the entire winter looking like an inevitable state champion.
In fact, Abingdon finished fourth in its district and entered the Region 3D tournament as the No. 4 seed. Yet when the postseason arrived, coach Jimmy Brown's team became something different.
Abingdon closed the season with six consecutive victories, turning what had been an uneven regular season into the first girls basketball state championship in school history. Virginia's House of Delegates later commemorated the team for finishing 22-8 and making that remarkable postseason charge.
At the center of it all was one of the most accomplished athletes ever to wear an Abingdon uniform.
The A.J. Trivette show
The 6-foot-3 senior Annsley “A.J.” Trivette, an NC State signee, produced a staggering final season.
She averaged 23.8 points, 9.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2.5 steals and 2.4 blocks per game and was named VHSL Class 3 Player of the Year for the second consecutive season. She finished her high school career with 2,411 points, 1,074 rebounds, 396 assists, 278 steals and 264 blocked shots.
And the deeper Abingdon went into the postseason, the better she seemed to get.
The Falcons survived Western Albemarle 45-39 in the state quarterfinals. Then Trivette erupted for 34 points in a 62-49 semifinal victory over Hopewell, sending Abingdon to Richmond and the first girls basketball state championship game in program history.
Waiting at VCU's Siegel Center was Skyline.
Abingdon didn't simply win.
The Lady Falcons took control.
Trivette scored 25 points on 9-of-11 shooting, grabbed 14 rebounds, handed out three assists, blocked three shots and collected two steals. But this championship was more than a one-player performance.
Maddie Fields pulled down 13 rebounds. Lauren Baker distributed eight assists. Elizabeth Nichols knocked down two 3-pointers and scored nine points.
Abingdon dominated the glass 53-37, carried a 30-21 advantage into halftime and then produced one of the most emphatic defensive finishes imaginable: Skyline did not score a single point in the fourth quarter.
Final: Abingdon 58, Skyline 38.
For Brown, it was the culmination of years of building the program. For Trivette and her teammates, it was validation that a team that finished fourth in its own district could still be the last team standing in Virginia.
And for Abingdon athletics, the scoreboard now read:
Volleyball — State Champions.
Girls Basketball — State Champions.
Two down.
One season remained.
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SOFTBALL — PERFECTION COMPLETES HISTORY
By spring, the question surrounding Abingdon softball was no longer merely whether the Lady Falcons could win a state championship.
It was whether they could complete something Virginia had never seen before.
Coach Chelsea Campbell's team answered with perfection.
Abingdon won the Mountain 7 District championship, captured the Region 3D crown and reached the state tournament without losing. The Falcons then shut out Rustburg 4-0 in the state quarterfinals.
Against Rustburg, Ada Gillenwater was dominant, tossing a one-hitter and striking out eight. Kendyll Cole homered, while Lauren Baker went 2-for-3, stole two bases and scored twice.
The state semifinal against New Kent became another showcase for Abingdon's depth. Scout Summitt went 3-for-3 with an inside-the-park home run and three RBIs, while Chloe Thomas controlled the game in the circle, allowing one run over five innings and striking out seven as the Falcons rolled into the championship game.
That brought Abingdon face-to-face with defending Class 3 champion Broadway.
The opponent was formidable. Broadway pitcher Lilah Deavers would ultimately be named Class 3 Player of the Year after a season that included 255 strikeouts and a sub-1.00 ERA.
Abingdon was unimpressed.
Playing the championship at its own Lady Falcon Park, the Falcons attacked early and built a 7-0 advantage before Broadway scored a run. Abingdon ultimately defeated the defending champions 7-3 to secure the first softball state championship in school history.
Gillenwater worked all seven innings in the championship, allowing six hits and only two earned runs. Baker came through again at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a double and a triple, while Cole finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs.
The Falcons' lineup had been loaded throughout the season. Available season statistics show Hailey Branscomb hitting .475, Baker at .455 with a .523 on-base percentage, and Summitt at .442 with eight home runs. Summitt was later selected first-team all-state at shortstop and Baker earned first-team honors in the outfield. Campbell was named VHSL Class 3 Coach of the Year.
Most importantly, the official historical record shows Abingdon completing the championship season 29-0, the only unbeaten VHSL softball champion in Virginia that year.
The final out meant far more than one softball championship.
It completed the triple crown.
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A FEAT WITHOUT A VHSL PRECEDENT
To fully appreciate what happened in Abingdon, the three championships have to be considered together.
Plenty of Virginia schools have built outstanding athletic departments. Some have won multiple state championships in the same year. Some have produced dominant runs in individual sports.
But according to contemporary reporting on the accomplishment, no VHSL school before Abingdon had ever won volleyball, girls basketball and softball state championships in the same school year.
That answers the Class 3 question emphatically.
Since the current six-classification VHSL structure was introduced, no other Class 3 girls program had accomplished the volleyball-basketball-softball sweep. More significantly, the feat had not been accomplished under the league's previous classification structures either, according to the historical reporting surrounding Abingdon's championship.
So this was not simply a Class 3 record.
It was a VHSL first.
And the three championships were remarkably different.
The volleyball team had to defeat the opponent responsible for every one of its losses.
The basketball team had to rise from fourth place in its district and reinvent itself in the postseason.
The softball team had to carry the pressure of an unbeaten season while knowing that one final victory would make history.
All three found a way.
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THE ATHLETES WHO CONNECTED THE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Perhaps the most striking part of Abingdon's accomplishment is that these were not three completely separate groups of athletes.
There was crossover.
Trivette was a central figure in both volleyball and basketball, earning first-team all-state volleyball honors before becoming the Class 3 basketball Player of the Year.
Baker went from being a major contributor and all-state selection on the basketball court to a first-team all-state softball outfielder, becoming one of the players whose athletic versatility helped connect the winter championship to the spring championship.
And that perhaps says as much about Abingdon's year as the trophies themselves.
This was not specialization producing one powerhouse program.
It was an athletic culture producing champions across seasons.
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A GOLDEN ERA IN ABINGDON ATHLETICS
The triple crown also fits into a larger era of success at Abingdon High School.
Entering 2025-26, the school had already accumulated 12 VHSL state championships during the previous 11 seasons across seven sports. After volleyball, basketball and softball added three more, the total since 2015 climbed to 15 state championships in 10 different sports.
That breadth is extraordinary.
But even among all those trophies, the 2025-26 Lady Falcons stand apart.
Years from now, individual statistics may fade from memory. People may forget the exact score of a quarterfinal or which inning produced which run.
They will remember this:
Volleyball — 2025 Class 3 State Champions.
Girls Basketball — 2026 Class 3 State Champions.
Softball — 2026 Class 3 State Champions.
Three different seasons. Three different coaching staffs. Three different championship runs.
One school.
One extraordinary group of young women.
And one accomplishment that, until the Abingdon Lady Falcons came along, had never been done in Virginia High School League history.
