Well-traveled Lady Flyers Entertain Lancers on Wednesday (Student Night)
The Sandhills Community College volleyball team wrapped up its trip to Northern Ohio on a positive note with Saturday's 25-14, 25-16 and 25-16 victory over Henry Ford College of Dearborn, Mich.
The Lady Flyers lost their first three matches played at Owens CC in Perrysburg on Friday and Saturday to the No. 1, No. 6 and No. 11 ranked teams in the 2019 NJCAA Division III Pre-season Volleyball Committe Poll.
Coach Alicia Riggan's squad, now 3-6, returns to action for a 6 p.m. Student Night match on Wednesday at the Hangar with Lenoir CC (1-0) providing the opposition. There will be free pizza for the first 30 students with their ID.
The Flyers dropped a 13-25, 25-20, 16-25, 25-18 and 5-15 decision to No. 11 Lorain CC in their first match on Friday. They were defeated 16-25, 20-25 and 21-25 by No. 6 ranked Columbus State in an afternoon contest.
In their first match on Saturday, the Flyers lost 17-25, 12-25 and 5-25 to Owens, the 2018 National Champion. Both Owens and Lorain County defeated the Flyers in last November's district tournament held in Butler, Pa.
Led by middle hitter Carley Modlin with eight kills in 12 attacks, the Flyers connected on 27 of their 56 attacks overall in the victory over Division II Henry Ford. Outside hitter Christen Clontz added seven kills on eight attacks and four aces.
Other statistical leaders for the winners were Camryn Lowe with 16 assists and Willow Williams with 10 digs.
Twenty-eight teams in all competed in the event. Owens completed the weekend with a record of 11-1 while Columbus State remained undefeated at 6-0.
"I'm glad we got the opportunity to play the Ohio schools," Riggan said. "Two of them will come to our region for the district games. It's good to see early what we are dealing with so we can get better.
"Every year we try and do some type of Labor Day trip. Only one of our coaches and one of our players had ever been to Ohio before. There were five courts and the tournament was run really well. Catawba Valley was the only other North Carolina school there."
C. Bergmann