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On Wednesday, Nov. 15, Pike Liberal Arts senior Emma Baker signed her college letter-of-intent to accept a volleyball scholarship at Cape Fear Community College in North Carolina.

Baker fought through injuries this season to still help her teammates win a second straight area championship. In just nine games, she earned the TB&T Female Athlete of the Week three times and tallied 23 aces, 55 kills and 21 blocks.

As a junior, Baker earned All-Messenger honors as she amassed a team-high 120 kills, 65 blocks and 36 aces. Baker is the first Lady Patriot to earn a volleyball scholarship in at least a decade.

“It is exciting to have a player from Pike go to the next level and I think she has been chasing this for awhile,” PLAS Coach Lara Lea Jones said. “I think it’s great that she reached this goal and it says a lot about this program and where we have come from and where we are. She has worked hard and dedicated a lot of summers being up here and playing with us.”

Baker said that once she visited the campus at CFCC she fell in love.

“The coaches and the girls and the whole program there is phenomenal and the school, in general, it’s just everything I wanted,” Baker emphasized. “I went up there and visited in August and I loved it. It’s really beautiful, I liked it a lot.”

Baker has already set goals for herself in college.

“I plan on going into the surgical tech program and becoming a nurse maybe,” she said with a smile. “I’m not completely sure, yet. I also want to go there and hopefully do well (in volleyball) for my two years and transfer to a four-year program and continue playing.”

With Baker being the first PLAS volleyball player to earn a scholarship in more than 10 years, she hopes this can be motivation to other Lady Patriots.

“I’m hoping that I can be a leader in that way,” she said. “I have a lot of (junior varsity) girls I’m close with that look up to me. I hope this shows them – and all the young women at our school – that they can accomplish their goals, too.”