The Raider volleyball team just wanted to make things exciting, that’s all.

South Rowan earned its first win in the 4A Central Piedmont Conference Tuesday in a marathon match over Davie County by scores of 15-12, 8-15, 15-6, 13-15 and 15-12. The Raiders rallied from a seven-point deficit in the final game and hit the floor to celebrate when Morgan Andrews’ kill found an open spot in the Davie defense.

“They have a tendency to get upset when they get down but they did a great job with that today,”South head coach Wanda Watts said. “They’re gelling now, communicating with each other. Sometimes you have too many chiefs and not enough indians, but the seniors have taken charge and the others aren’t taking offense.”

All the Raiders stepped up when needed Tuesday, but none more than sophomore Brittney Gaddy, who turned back Davie time and again at the net. Gaddy finished with seven kills and seven blocks, with one of each coming in the closing moments of Game 5 to earn South a side out, then to get to game point.

Her work at the end of the game stemmed from the frustration of watching South lose its early momentum.

“I was ready to kill someone — shove it down their throats,”Gaddy said. “My adrenaline got going in the first game and I knew I could do it after that.”

Points were hard to come by throughout the match, but South (4-8 overall, 1-3 CPC) clawed ahead in Game 1 for the three-point win after leading the whole game. Davie (4-9, 0-3) quickly pulled away from a 6-6 tie in the second game, though, behind four straight points from Tara Young to tie the match.

Jennifer Morgan and Gaddy did a lot of the scoring in the third game, with Morgan getting South started with a 5-0 run and Gaddy running off seven points from the service line for a 14-3 lead that turned into the 15-6 win.

But Davie wasn’t about to yield.

Behind great play at the net from Michelle Davidson and Randi Moore, the War Eagles weathered South’s attack and the two teams clawed back and forth to ties of 10-10, 12-12 and 13-13. Davie’s Candice James got her squad to game point, South missed a chance to tie on its next two service chances and Davie forced Game 5 when a South kill went wide.

Even between games, though, South’s players still kept their cool.

“We had to focus and we did that. You have to talk to yourself, talk to your team and make sure you keep everyone else up,”Meredith Bost said. “I’m not going to play four, five games and not win.”

But Davie didn’t make it easy, jumping to a 5-0 lead and 8-1 advantage behind a strong performance by Abby Brickey.

“At that point, the game should be over,”Davie head coach Leo Brunelli said. “The next thing they should be thinking about is how soon they’re going to get on the bus, then they stop communicating, they stop working.”

South climbed closer when Andrews led a 5-0 run from the service line. Davie again went up 12-6 with Brickey serving four straight, but the difference in the end proved to be Gaddy and South’s other front-line defenders.

“South did a great job, their two girls in the middle did a magnificent job,”Brunelli said. “We couldn’t hit the ball over them, we couldn’t even tip over them.”

“Brittney Gaddy made a tremendous improvement since the beginning of the season. She had a hard time getting to know where she was out there, not getting in the net,”Watts said. “Finally she’s getting her blocks together. This was definitely her best game of the season.”