Serve and serve receive.

North Rowan came away with the better of all three aspects of to forge a 15-11, 11-15, 15-10, 15-4 win over South Rowan on the Cavs’ home floor. And while Cavaliers Megan Honeycutt and Kristin Kobylis and Raider Jennifer Morgan put on a hitting clinic at the net, the match was decided elsewhere.

“It seemed like whoever got the serve in got the points,” Kobylis said.

That actually wasn’t the case in the opening game, when Honeycutt and Morgan went head-to-head for some explosive kills. Morgan helped South take an early lead but watched North creep back. Honeycutt came flying in from the left side for a cross-court kill to tie the game at 8-8, and the Cavs didn’t trail again.

“Every game it’s just different competition, a different situation, just having fun and trying to win,” Honeycutt said. “Of course, once you see somebody who can hit decent across from you, that pumps you up to show them that you can hit with them.”

The number of kills collected in the second game dropped dramatically as Cavalier Carrie Powers and Raider Mandy Yost reeled off long scoring runs. Powers gave North a 7-2 lead with a 7-0 run during which few balls made it back across the net, then Yost took it two steps further in a 9-0 run that included several aces and paced South to a 15-11 win to tie the match.

North’s Melissa Dunn came off the bench to keep up the strong serving in Game 3, hitting for seven of her 14 points in one stretch. Cassie Constantino added three straight after that to put North up 14-3, where the Cavs stayed as South rallied behind Meredith Bost to pull within 14-10. But that’s as close as South got.

“We let them back in a couple of games. The third game we had them and let them back,” North head coach Tricia Hester said. “They did a good job hanging on.”

The Cavaliers took the initiative in the fourth game with kills from Tasha Pharr, Honeycutt, Kobylis and Meridith Clawson, then closed it out in style — a high set to Honeycutt on the left side and a cross-court kill that the Raiders hit wide.

“Megan is so awesome to watch. When she goes up for it you know it’s going down,” Kobylis said. “Everybody wants to hit like Megan.”

Monday, Kobylis did hit like Honeycutt, as both players had 10 kills. Morgan led the Raiders with seven kills and three blocks, with Brittney Gaddy adding three blocks to go with a pair of kills.

“They had some pretty good hits,” Hester said of the Honeycutt-Morgan matchup. “They’re pretty scrappy. They get a lot of balls up there.”

“They’re two real strong hitters,” South head coach Wanda Watts added.

“We needed that win bad. Overall I’m not disappointed, not with the way North’s been playing.”