The prep volleyball notebook …The scare Hurricane Floyd put into area residents jumbled volleyball
schedules across the county.
Thursday’s matches all were
cancelled early in the day before it became clear the damaging winds and rains would hit
farther east. As things turned out, area players got a sunny day off.
“It really wasn’t much
of anything,” said West Rowan head coach Susan Drye, whose Falcons moved their match
with South Rowan to Oct. 4.
Also rescheduled was East
Rowan’s contest with Central Cabarrus (Wednesday) and North Rowan-High Point Central,
played Monday.
Cavaliers head coach Tricia Hester
didn’t mind moving Thursday’s match after the scare she got in practice earlier
in the week regarding hitters Megan Honeycutt and Latasha Pharr.
“Megan did something to her
shoulder and Tasha turned an ankle within 10 minutes of each other,” Hester said of
two of North’s key players. “It wasn’t anything too bad, but Floyd helped
us out as that goes, got them healthy.”
North needs every advantage it can
get as the second round of conference action gets underway today with a match against
Lexington. The Cavaliers’ only loss in the 2A Central Carolina Conference was to
league leader Ledford, but North struggled to top East Davidson the first time around on
the Cavs’ home floor. That key rematch comes Thursday.
“I’ll feel more
confident if we can make it through this week 3-0. That will assure us second place unless
we blow it,” Hester said. “We’re fighting East Davidson for second, but
every year we’ve split.”
Adding importance to the East
Davidson contest is that the CCC Tournament will be played at the Golden Eagles’ gym.
For North to grab one of the league’s two playoff spots, the Cavs probably will have
to beat East at least once on the Eagles’ floor.
Close didn’t count for much
Tuesday in East Rowan’s loss to Sun Valley.
The Mustangs dropped the first
game 16-14 and the last game 17-15, with a 15-8 decision added in the middle for the
sweep. It was hard for Sandy Basinger’s team to take, especially after rallying to
tie the first game at 14-all and leading 13-8 in the closing contest.
“We just couldn’t
finish. We had game point four times in the last game and nobody could put the ball
down,” Basinger said. “We’re going to try some new things.”
Basinger is giving East a new
look, letting senior Carmen Kluttz set at times and play all the way around instead of
just on the front row. Julie Alexander is moving from outside to middle hitter, while
Tiffany Poole and Deena Webb are going to play in the back row but rotate all the way
around and see time at the net.
“We’ve got to get the
ball over the net, and if 5-foot-1 girls can do it, then so be it,” Basinger said.
“We were making 9-10 subs and we’re trying to cut down.”
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net update: East Rowan’s net
is fixed after taking a week off. Basinger said that, while it was a trying ordeal, the
help provided by the East Rowan YMCA and Catawba College made things a lot easier. The
Mustangs practiced at the Y for several days and played Sun Valley at Catawba Tuesday.
The Falcons will be looking for
some revenge when their 3A South Piedmont Conference schedule begins anew.
“It will be nice to know what
we’re going up against now,” Drye said. “We’re looking forward to
getting a couple of wins we didn’t get the time before.”
Included in that mix will be
tonight’s foe, Harding, which topped West in five games in the first meeting, as well
as a Piedmont team that Drye thought her Falcons should have bested but lost to in four
games.
Adding excitement to this
week’s schedule is a battle against county foe East Rowan Thursday at West. The
Mustangs beat West in four games Aug. 24.
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more gremlins: Last week it was
the East Rowan net, this week it’s West Rowan’s scoreboard.
When the Falcons plugged in their
scoreboard Tuesday against Central Cabarrus, it came on — and then went out. Nothing
got it started and portable scoreboards couldn’t be located, so the match was played
without one.
Raiders head coach Wanda Watts
doesn’t have a lot to show for her team’s first three conference games. At least
not in the win column.
But after South played a close
match with world-beater R.J. Reynolds last Tuesday, Watts said the Raiders have something
to look forward to in the closing weeks of the season.
“We played better with
Reynolds than I thought we would have. We led most of the third game before we ended up
losing it 16-14,” said Watts, who added that Reynolds has lost just one match this
season, a nonconference affair. “So far in our conference matches, if we play like
we’re capable, we can beat some of these teams. After Reynolds the talent is pretty
much even with the remaining teams.”
South closes the year with road
matches at West Forsyth (Sept. 28), at R.J. Reynolds (Sept. 30) and at Davie County (Oct.
7).
With the second half of the CCC
season starting tonight against High Point Central, Bob Beiter is looking forward to
improvement this year and next.
“I’m looking forward to
some of the jayvee girls showing outstanding skills so they can move up to the varsity
level in the future,” Beiter said. “I’m concerned about winning now, but
I’m also concerned about next year and the year after.”
Ticora Jones and Jamie Seay, both
freshmen, have already seen time with the varsity this year, and Beiter said other young
players also will be called up throughout the Hornets’ last six matches.
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The volleyball notebook appears
Tuesdays in the Post. |
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