Lady Flyers Nipped in Alumni Game Thriller - Open Season at Lenoir on Thursday
Five of the seven former Lady Flyers that participated in Saturday's annual Sandhills Community College alumni volleyball match at The Hangar were members of last year's squad that was swept 3-0 by their undergraduate counterparts.
This time, in an intensely played match that lasted more than two hours, and rarely saw the teams separated by more than three points, the alums prevailed over Coach Alicia Riggan's current squad 21-25, 25-22, 21-25, 25-23 and 20-18.
"I told the girls I don't think you are going find a group of girls that are more competitive and just love to win," Riggan said of her former players. "It was fun to see them have a good time.
"We got the opportunity to get everybody in, used a lot of rotations and kind of saw what we need to practice on. When you have a scrimmage like this you want to make sure you're getting the most out of it.
"I think this might have been the best alumni game we've ever had."
With the first regular season match at Lenoir CC less than a week away, sophomore Keke Lawrence thinks the tough competition was exactly what the current team, that includes five sophomores and eight freshmen, needed.
"I think it was good for us, knowing they weren't going to play soft on us," she said afterward. "We have a game on Thursday and this was something to help us get started."
Former Lady Flyers Come Prepared
A number of the alums attended open gyms with the current players during the summer, determined to be more competitive this time around.
"Last year the alumni game was not good," said setter Abby Wallace who earned NJCAA All-American honors in 2018 while leading her team in assists, digs and service aces.
That the alumni team was competitive was no surprise. Wallace, Tee' Ashia Lilly and Rachael Mashburn were team co-captains as sophomores and contributed to Flyer squads that compiled a two year record of 51-11.
Lilly earned All-Region 10 honors and went on to play at Fayetteville State. Mashburn played a year of club volleyball at UNC-Charlotte. She is currently a member of the administrative staff at Sandhills as Sandhills Promise and High School Recruiter.
The alumni squad included 2020 NJCAA All-American Carley Modlin, who played at Division I UNC-Asheville last year before transferring to Appalachian State. A biology major, she plans to go on to attend dental school.
Alexus McCrimmon, a 2019 All-Region 10 honoree, Khaile Jones, a strong contributor to the 2019 and 2020 Flyer teams, and 2016 graduate Kaylee Lopez-Rosario, who went on to become the head volleyball coach at Rocky River High School completed the strong squad.
After the teams split the first two sets, a kill by outside hitter Madison Brower, assisted by fellow freshman setter Lannah Huneycutt, made it 2-1 before the alums eked out a 25-23 win to extend the match to a tie-breaker set.
Tied for the 10th and final time at 18-18, kills by Lilly and Jones ended the match.
"This was so much fun today," said Wallace, who was recently named the head volleyball coach at nearby West Pine Middle School. "It's good to be back playing and even better when you win.
At the end of the match, the current and former players engaged with each other for quite a while by the net.
"They're going to be a good team," Wallace said. "They're scrappy and they have a good setter."
The 2022 Season Begins for Real on Thursday
The Division III Lady Flyers meet Division II Lenoir in Kinston at 6 p.m. Details on the availability of a live stream are expected to be available prior to the match.
Lawrence, an NJCAA All-American middle hitter as a freshman, led her team on Saturday with 16 kills and five block solos, but the product of Lumberton High School is not taking anything for granted.
"It's a new season," she said. "Being Player of the Year (Region 10) and a second team All-American was good, but this year I have a lot to prove so my goal is to keep grinding as much as I can."
Other contributors on Saturday included sophomores L'Asia Jackson and Abby Quick with 16 digs and three aces, and 14 digs and three aces, respectively, and freshmen Huneycutt with 29 assists and 18 digs, Alexis Hinson with 10 assists and nine digs, and Dajsha Fields with 10 kills.
"I thought we did well," Alyssa Maragelis, a freshman defensive specialist and Wallace Hill High School grad said. "We just have a few things to improve on."
C. Bergmann
