Lady Flyers Split a Pair of Matches With Pitt CC
The Sandhills Community College and Pitt Community College volleyball teams were scheduled to begin a double-header at 11 a.m. on Saturday at the Hangar. Five hours later, an emphatic kill by Christen Clontz gave the Lady Flyers a split of the pair of 3-1 decisions.
Coach Alicia Riggan's squad dropped the opening match 25-18, 22-25, 23-25 and 18-25, and won the second 25-13, 27-25, 19-25 and 25-22. The Flyers improved to 6-7 with their fourth win in the last five matches while the Division II Bulldogs from Greenville dropped to 5-2.
Next is the first Region X match of the season on Tuesday at 6 p.m. against Central Carolina CC in Sanford. The Lady Flyers entertain Richard Bland on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
The proceedings on Camp Day were delayed by an hour due to the late arrival of the match officials. The home team got off to a positive start when Camryn Lowe assisted on two kills by Alexus McCrimmon, and one by Morrigan Denman, to wrap up the first set.
The tough-serving and hard-hitting Bulldogs edged the Flyers in the next two sets before taking control midway through the decisive fourth.
Carley Modlin led the Flyers with 12 kills followed by Denman with 11 and McCrimmon with eight. Setters Lowe (20) and Adison Campbell (18) combined for 38 assists. Libero Willow Williams contributed 22 digs and six service aces.
"I felt we started out the first set with energy and then it was like we backed down a notch," Riggan said. "We started to see that inconsistent play again. We move into the second match and again the girls seem to have it in control in the first set."
Following the one-sided first set victory, the Flyers were up 23-15 in the second before the Bulldogs rallied to take a 25-24 lead. But a service ace by McCrimmon, in between kills by Denman and Elyria Hackney, gave the Flyers the final three points of the set and a 2-0 lead.
Tied at 7-7 in the third set, the Bulldogs scored the next seven points and were never seriously challenged on the way to closing the gap to 2-1. Four kills by Modlin, and an ace by Williams, helped the Flyers jump out to a 10-5 lead in the fourth set. It was tied at 11-11 and for the final time at 22-22. Then a kill by McCrimmon and two by Clontz closed out the match.
"Pitt was a team that I thought was going to be tough, but I also think we were beating ourselves at times," Riggan said. "It was really frustrating today trying to figure out who was on and who was not.
McCrimmon and Modlin gave the Flyers a strong presence in the middle through out the long afternoon.
"I just had the mindset to be calm and get the job done," McCrimmon, a North Moore High School grad, said. "We just had to keep fighting when they were coming back."
McCrimmon 12, Modlin 11, and Denman 9, were the second-match leaders in kills. Lowe (21) and Campbell (19) combined for 40 assists. Williams was credited with 16 digs. Modlin had a total of seven solo blocks in the two matches. Her season total of 32 is the third most in NJCAA Division III. Sarah Speer of Rock Valley CC (IL) is first with 34 in a total of 20 matches.
C. Bergmann
