LANDIS — The Carson Cougars continued their dominating march through South Piedmont Conference volleyball foes Thursday night, sweeping county neighbor South Rowan in 3 straight sets.
The Cougars maintained perfection at 12-0, 21-0 as they thumped the Raiders 25-7, 25-8, 25-8, using an overpowering front line and some pinpoint serving.
“We played well throughout the match,” Cougar coach Kelan Rogers stated, “and there was not a letdown which is good to see. That has been a characteristic of this team but not tonight.”
A letdown might be expected for a volleyball team that is unbeaten, ranked first in the state by Max Preps and has lost only two sets all season. They have yet to be truly challenged.
That was the case against South as they opened the match with three powerful kills by Hannah Elmore and just kept feeding her the ball.
“I did get a lot of sets tonight so I will be surprised if my arm is not hurting tomorrow,” Elmore said with a giggle. “But I think we all worked together pretty good tonight.”
Elmore finished the match with 10 kills and two blocks while Michaela White was close behind with eight kills. It was also White, along with Madison Weast, Jordan Osborne and Morgan Hester who served up a string of service aces throughout the match to keep South at bay. Each had a pair of aces at key spots in the match.
“I was happy with our serving, especially since that is what we worked on for the past three days in practice,” White noted. “We practiced a lot hitting specific spots and being accurate.”
For South Rowan (5-8, 8-12) it was their second sweep loss to Carson this season and puts them in danger of missing a play-off spot with three SPC matches left.
“There were times tonight when we were scrappy and played well”, assistant Raider coach Norma Wiedenhoft stated. “But then there were times we really let down.”
South played the match without head coach Jan Dowling, out due to illness. There were some bright spots, especially from speedy Sylvetta Bost roaming the middle keeping the ball alive and from Caroline Hubbard with four kills and two blocks.
“I thought South Rowan was very impressive tonight,” Rogers stated. “They were very scrappy and came out ready to play.”
As for his Cougars, Rogers was happy with the effort but still sees room for improvement. “We made too many unforced errors but it was a good overall effort so I can’t be too negative.”
Carson has four SPC matches left and also head to Mt. Tabor October 12 to meet the 16-0 Spartans, a 4A CPC power.