Charlotte Latin Hawks soar: Volleyball team’s unlikely path to undefeated season
The best high school volleyball team in Mecklenburg County, and the coach of the best high school volleyball team in Mecklenburg County, have been through a lot.
Charlotte Latin coach Caitlin Peters took over a Hawks’ team in 2018 that had gone through four losing seasons. And in her first five years, Peters’ teams didn’t register a winning season, either. In four of them, Latin didn’t win more than three games.
Some of the players on her team now, like star senior Allie Haynie, remember playing for Latin — or watching Latin play — in, empty gyms.
“When I was in middle school,” Haynie said, “I didn’t really pay that much attention to volleyball because I didn’t play. It was definitely not popular. I don’t think anyone would go to the games.”
So how did Latin volleyball go from zero wins five years ago to sold-out gyms and a 19-0 record so far this season?
Well, Peters — a former player and assistant coach at Florida State — says it’s pretty simple.
“I saw this coming,” she said. “We don’t need to go boast about it. You put in the work and other people will notice. Did I expect us to be 19-0? Probably, no. But I knew we would be 18-1 or 17-2. We had a strong group coming back, kids you have to keep out of the gym.
“I knew this was possible.”
The state power that was
Once upon a time, Charlotte Latin was a national high school volleyball power.
From 2001-2012, CLS Athletic Hall of Fame coach Suzie Pignetti led the Hawks to 11 straight conference titles and nine straight state titles. In 35 years at Latin, Butler and Charlotte Country Day, Pignetti’s record was 745-150.
Her past five teams at Latin were 161-10-1.
After Pignetti left, Latin shuffled through three coaches in five years before hiring Peters, who had more than a decade playing professional beach and pro indoor volleyball experience under her belt.
“I was ready to get out of south Florida and my first month in Charlotte, I met (then Latin coach Gloria Cash). We were in some open volleyball play. She asked where I was from and I told her that I had owned a volleyball club in Florida.”
Cash was moving out of town and told Peters that Latin would be looking for a coach.
“I applied,” Peters said, “and here I am. It’s kind of a blessing.”
A long road, a lot of work
From the time she got on campus, Peters knew that turning Latin around wouldn’t be a quick fix. Still, she couldn’t have imagined how much work — or how long — it would take.
“There were a lot of downs in those first few years,” she said, “but when you believe in your values and how we can get ‘there,’ it makes it easier.”
Peters offered classes and open gyms and did her best to recruit the young kids on campus, hoping to take advantage of the fact that Latin is a K-12 school and she could maybe train the younger girls so that by the time they got to high school, they would skilled — and hungry.
Only, at first, it didn’t go so well.
“I would run open gym and only one or two kids would show up those first first few years,” Peters said. “But you have to keep grinding. I put a lot of extra work into out of season practice, and training and classroom time on how to face challenges and learn form mistakes, and that errors are part of the game. It was really hard, but I figured if only one kid showed up, that’s one kid I can make an impact on.”
It took awhile, but Peters’ dedication and teaching style began to catch on. One girl brought another. And another. Soon the gym was starting to fill up. And soon some of the younger girls were starting to come on varsity in ninth grade.
After going 3-17 in 2021, Latin was 11-15 in 2022, which was Haynie’s freshman year. In 2023, the Hawks were 13-11 and last year, they were 18-6. Latin lost in the second round of the playoffs, but were returning nearly the entire team.
Charlotte Latin is a volleyball school again.
“Sometimes,” Peters said, “I had to kick them out of the gym. They’re like, ‘Can we get more reps in coach?’ They showed up for 6 a.m. workouts in the spring, packed the gym. It was incredible to be a part of.”
The hot start, and the future
With all that momentum, Peters had high hopes for her team this season.
Charlotte Latin hasn’t won a conference or state title since 2012, but Peters figured her team could be in the mix this fall.
Then, when the season began, her team proved her intuition right.
Latin won 12 straight games and didn’t lose a set. Latin beat big public schools like Palisades (2-0, Aug. 22) and private school state quarterfinalists like Charlotte Christian (3-1, Aug. 26).
Then on Saturday, the Hawks beat N.C. state power North Raleigh Christian, 3-1, and that was big. North Raleigh has won nine of the past 10 private school state titles.
Peters felt like all her efforts had finally paid off. And so did her players.
“In middle school,” Latin junior Ava Nadeau said, “I would clear my schedule to go to every possible workout. Volleyball was new to me and personally, when I start something, I want to become the best possible version of myself. Now the upperclassmen and past upperclassmen have built up a legacy and inspired younger girls to play and be able to play with (those upperclassmen) while they’re here, and that’s why the program has begun to grow so much more.”
Nadeau is one of many stars on this Hawks’ team.
She has 171 kills, 16th best in North Carolina, and 176 digs, which ranks 25th in the state.
Setter Emily Cao leads North Carolina with 537 assists and is 23rd in aces with 38. Sophomore Ryan Burrell is third in the state with 272 digs. And Haynie is fourth in kills in North Carolina (218) and 14th in digs (189).
Peters said among her 13-player roster, nine should, or could, play in college.
And watching her team beat North Raleigh Christian, the N.C. private school standard, Peters said she couldn’t help but be proud.
Proud of the big crowds her team now draws, proud of her team, and proud of her perseverance. She wants to be, as she said, “a Charlotte Latin lifer,” and she stuck out the hard times.
Now, her team seems equipped to make a run this year — and for several years after that.
“It was pretty awesome to beat” North Raleigh, the coach said. “It’s the team to beat and the team that’s had success for so many years, the team that’s always making the finals. And we took over in the third and fourth sets and they didn’t have an answer for us. To see a team I coach every day play the way I know they can, and to raise the bar and the standard, that was fun to watch.”
This story was originally published September 9, 2025 at 5:45 AM.
