Lady Flyers Ride Impressive Road Win into First Home Match on Saturday

Playing their seventh match in a row away from home, the Sandhills Community College volleyball team was sharp from the start, rolling to a convincing 25-9, 21-25, 25-19 and 25-14 victory over Lenoir CC on Thursday.

The Lady Flyers shook off any affects from the more than two-hour bus ride to Kinston, taking leads of 13-3, and then 21-6 in the first set. They enjoyed a large advantage at the service line throughout as Camryn Lowe and L'Asia Jackson were each credited with six aces and zero service errors.

"It was game time and I feel like we were all in a "go" mode," freshman middle blocker KeKe Lawrence said later. "It was time to play and we were all in that mindset."

Coach Alicia Riggan's squad improved to 3-4 while the Lancers dropped to 6-7. The Flyers entertain Rockingam CC at 11 a.m., and Southwest Virginia CC at 3 p.m., in a Region 10 tri-match at The Hangar on Saturday.

Rockingham and Southwest Virginia meet at 1 p.m. on a Senior Day designed to attract high school athletes to the campus. These are the first of seven home matches in a row over the next 12 days.

"I can't wait for the home games just to see our people and to have a crowd ready to support us," said Lawrence, a product of Lumberton High School, who enjoyed her must productive outing of the season with nine kills on 16 attacks and six solo blocks.

An all-around effort by Lexi Allen added up to 15 kills, 18 digs and two solo blocks. Setters Lowe and Kaitlyn Locklear combined for 28 assists. Jackson and Lowe also contributed 14 and 13 digs respectively.

Leading 18-15 in the second set, the Flyers were out-scored 10-3, putting the Lancers back in business.

"We kind of took our foot off the gas for a little bit and you can't do that against teams like that," Riggan said. "Thankfully we took care of business in the third and fourth sets. The serving helped put us in the driver's seat."

Two wins at the net by Lawrence, and three aces in a row by Jackson, helped get the Flyers off to a 5-1 start in the third set. Later, tied at 18-18, a pair of kills by MacKenzie Swett, and one each by Mya Mallard and Allen, helped them pull away to take the 2-1 lead.

Then Lowe, returning from a three-match absence, served four aces in a row to give the team an almost insurmountable 20-11 advantage in the fourth set.

"It felt amazing to be back on the court," Lowe said. "I think there is more of a sense of unity on the team now. We've played together a little bit longer and things are starting to click and we're able to execute."

The Lady Flyers' kill percentage for the match was a season-best .230 with only 15 errors. The team's 14 service aces came with only four miscues.

"We've had a lot of unforced errors with hitting, serving and receiving and that's something we focused on tonight," Riggan said. "We have to figure out how to execute and minimize our errors because we are beating ourselves.

"You just felt the confidence when we had the serve which isn't something I have always felt in past years. We missed Cam. It was great to have her back in there, running the show with Kaitlyn."

Riggan is hoping plenty of high schoolers will show up on campus on Saturday and become excited about what the Lady Flyers are doing.

For Swett, and the team's 10 other freshmen, it will be their first regular season match at The Hangar. As has been typical this season, the enthusiasm of the Flyer players and their supporters at Lenoir made it almost sound like a home match. 

"Not only do we have energy when we're away, we also have energy when we're at home and our fans bring energy," she said. "It's always good to have the home court advantage."

C. Bergmann