Lady Flyers' Bid to Qualify for National Tournament Ends in Pennsylvania

The season came to a close for the Sandhills Community College volleyball team on Saturday as it dropped both of its matches at the NJCAA Division III Mid-Atlantic A-B District Championship held in Butler, PA.

Facing a tall order, competing against two of the top-ranked teams in the country, the Lady Flyers fought back from a two-set deficit before falling 21-25, 23-25, 25-19, 25-20 and 13-15 to then-undefeated and No. 3 Butler County CC in the opener.

Back on the court less than an hour later, Coach Alicia Riggan's squad was defeated 25-11, 25-13 and 25-12 by No. 2 ranked Owens CC. The Region 10 regular season and tournament champion Flyers completed their season with a record of 20-7.

Later Owens (26-7) swept Butler (16-1), sending Owens to the national tournament in Rochester, MN on November 11-13 as the district champion. Butler also qualifies for the field as the district runner-up.

Coupled with Butler's loss to Owens, the Lady Flyers would have been Minnesota-bound as the runner-up had they been able to complete their comeback against Butler.

On the way to the two-set deficit against the Pioneers, the Flyers were tied at 21-21 in the first set and led 23-21 in the second. Tied at 15-15 in the third, three kills by Maddie Harris, and a service ace and a kill by Lexie Allen, contributed to six points in a row that helped keep the Flyers' hopes alive.

In the fourth, a service ace by Kaitlyn Locklear gave the Lady Flyers a 6-5 lead they never relinquished. Later, with Shelby Hull on the service line, they scored six points in a row to increase the margin on the way to setting up the 15-point tiebreaker.

Butler held its largest lead at 12-7 in the fifth set before the Flyers came back to close the gap to 14-13 on the eighth solo block of the match by middle hitter KeKe Lawrence. The grueling contest ended when the Pioneers won the next point.

In a match featuring long rallies, Hull, the libero, was credited with 40 digs. Allen led the team with 16 kills to go along with 23 digs. Harris finished with a dozen kills and Lawrence had 10.

The other statistical leaders for the Flyers were Camryn Lowe with 24 assists, Locklear with 15 assists and 11 digs, and L'Asia Jackson with 18 digs.

The Lady Flyers fell behind early in all three sets against an Owens team that as a result of the Division III tournament not being held last season because of COVID, will be seeking its third consecutive national title.

The Flyers came into the district tournament having won 18 of their last 19 matches, following a 2-4 start to the season.

C. Bergmann