Lady Flyers Look to Bounce Back on Saturday at Flyers Invitational
The Sandhills Community College volleyball team entertains USC Sumter at noon on Saturday to wrap up the two-day Flyers Invitational at The Hangar.
The Lady Flyers dropped to 2-4 on the season with a 16-25, 16-25, 25-22 and 20-25 loss to Surry CC in Friday's tournament opener. Later, they were defeated 25-11, 20-25, 19-25 and 20-25 by Johnson and Wales of Charlotte.
Surry (4-0) and Johnson and Wales (3-1) each won both of their matches on Friday, and USC Sumter (0-4) was defeated twice.
Saturday's other match has Surry meeting Johnson and Wales at 10 a.m. The Lady Flyers defeated USC-Sumter 3-0 last Saturday in Lancaster, SC.
Long service runs by their opponents led to the Lady Flyers' downfall in both of their matches.
Tied at 13-13 in the first set against Surry, the Knights took command by scoring the next six points. Later, down two sets, and tied at 22-22 in the third, it was the Lady Flyers, making the big plays down the stretch, with sophomore Keke Lawrence, providing the final point of a 25-22 win with a kill at the net.
Coach Alicia Riggan's squad made an attempt to extend the match to a tiebreaker, but leading 14-11, the Knights scored six of the next eight points to take the lead for good.
The statistical leaders for the Lady Flyers were freshman Olivia Barlowe and sophomore Mackenzie Swett with five kills each, sophomore L'Asia Jackson with 17 digs, and freshman Alexis Hinson with 19 assists.
Against Johnson and Wales, a four-year college, the Lady Flyers got multiple kills from Lawrence, sophomore JaLasia Ray, and freshmen Barlowe and Dajsha Fields, in their most efficient attacking set of the season to grab a 25-11 first set win. Barlowe was credited with two service aces and L'Asia Jackson one to help the home team pull away.
The second set was tied at 16-16 when the Wildcats scored five points in a row on the way to knotting up the match at 1-1. With the Flyers leading 16-11 in the third, they surrendered 11 points a row this time, as the visitors took command of the set and the match.
Lawrence finished with 11 kills, Fields had seven and Barlowe and freshman Madison Brower contributed five each. Hinson was credited with 34 assists.
Barlowe was the leader in digs with 18 followed by Jackson with 15. Each was credited with four service aces. Also, sophomore Abby Quick contributed 10 digs and Swett had three block solos.
Freshman Lannah Huneycutt, who started the first four matches for the Lady Flyers as the setter, is on crutches after spraining an ankle at practice on Thursday. Lawrence's playing status is in doubt for Saturday after spraining an ankle late in the Johnson and Wales match.
C. Bergmann
