Lady Flyers Begin Pursuit of Region 10 Tournament Title on Saturday
The Sandhills Community College volleyball team begins post season play at 11 a.m. on Saturday in Wentworth, NC as the No. 1 seed in the Region 10 conference tournament, meeting No. 4 Caldwell Tech in the first semi-final match.
Caldwell advanced with a 3-1 quarterfinal win over Patrick Henry. Tournament host Rockingham CC swept Southwest Virginia CC in the other quarterfinal and takes on No. 2 seed Central Carolina CC in Saturday's other semi-final at 1 p.m.
The semi-final winners will meet for the Region 10 tournament title at 3 p.m. with the winner hosting the Mid-Atlantic District Tournament on Saturday, October 29.
The No. 11 in Division III ranked Lady Flyers, 10-0 in the conference, and 18-13 overall, completed regular season play on Thursday with a 25-7, 12-25, 21-25 and 19-25 home loss to Division II Lenoir CC.
"We came out in that first set on fire and then like we did at their place in August took our foot off the gas pedal," Coach Alicia Riggan said afterward. "We're not going to be flawless out here, but there can't be a domino affect where it trickles down and our confidence goes down.
"We just have to stay focused and I'm excited we have a day of practice to work out some of these kinks."
Just as they did in the earlier meeting between the teams, the Lady Flyers dominated the first set before dropping the next three.
Two kills apiece by Keke Lawrence and JaLasia Ray helped the home team get off to a 7-1 start. Mackenzie Swett and Dajsha Fields got into the act with a pair of kills before three blistering serves in a row by freshman Madison Brower for aces expanded the lead to 19-6 on the way to the 1-0 lead.
The Lady Flyers never led in an equally one-sided second set, and played catch-up unsuccessfully in the third and fourth as well, as the Lancers improved to 8-17 overall for the season.
Fields and Lawrence led the home team in kills with nine and eight respectively. Lannah Huneycutt was the leader in assists with 28 and digs with 16. L'Asia Jackson was credited with 14 digs. Brower had 11 to go with four service aces.
Both of the Flyers' regular season matches against Caldwell Tech (5-5 regular season, 7-17 overall) were decided in five sets. Rockingham (6-4, 9-8) and Central Carolina (7-3, 8-10) split their two regular season matches with each other.
"I'm excited about how hard they've worked this season and about what we're hopefully going to accomplish on Saturday," Riggan said.
The Mid-Atlantic District Tournament will include teams from Regions 10, 12 and 20.
C. Bergmann
