Alanna Deal and family

 

From staff reports

SALISBURY — Salisbury opened the volleyball season on Monday with a 3-1 loss to Central Carolina Conference rival West Davidson.

The Green Dragons prevailed 25-16, 25-20, 21-25 and 25-17.

Madelyn Lawrence made 33 digs for the Hornets. Ellen Yang had 16 digs, 13 assists and three kills. Alli Tuck had six blocks and four kills. Riley Peltz had 10 digs and six kills. Ella Trainor had 10 digs and three kills. Grace Blackwell had five assists and four digs. Brooke Cunningham had four kills. Mallory Link had three kills. Alondra Acevedo had a dig.

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THOMASVILLE — Thomasville won 3-1 against North Rowan in a non-conference season opener on Monday.

The Bulldogs took a 25-13, 24-26, 25-23 and 25-20 victory.

Standouts for the Cavaliers were Bella Smith, Chloee Stoner, Hannah Wilkerson, Roziah Ellis and Daphne Robinson.

Stoner served for 14 points, while Wilkerson had 10, Bella nine and Ellis five.

 

High school softball

Alanna Deal, a senior shortstop at South Columbus High, near Whiteville, has signed with USC Upstate.

Deal is the daughter of Kevin Deal, who was an all-county third baseman for South Rowan in the mid-1990s. He led Rowan County in RBIs in 1996.

His daughter put up crazy numbers while playing for East Columbus High as a sophomore in 2019. She batted .709 with eight homers, 36 RBIs and 25 steals. She was Columbus County Offensive Player of the Year and East Region Player of the Year and All-State.

She lost her junior season to COVID-19.

She played travel ball for Team Sout Carolina for three seasons and batted .481 with 26 homers and 125 RBIs.

Deal is an all-round athlete and has also been all-conference in volleyball, basketball and cheerleading.

Her teammates at USC-Upstate will include Carson senior Liza Simmerson.

 

Golf

East Rowan graduate Allen Terrell, director of coaching at the Dustin Johnson Golf School in Murrells Inlet, S.C., has a lot to be excited about.

The schools is rated as the top golf academy in the Southeast, and Masters champ Johnson is ranked as the No. 1 player in the world.

Terrell was Johnson’s coach at Coastal Carolina and has worked with him for years.

College basketball

David Tripp (A.L. Brown) scored 27 points for Milligan in an 85-68 loss to Tennessee Wesleyan on Saturday.

 

College volleyball

The Sun Belt Conference has announced the bracket for the Sun Belt Volleyball Tournament.

Play starts on Wednesday in Foley, Ala.

The tournament format this year features all 12 teams from the conference. The teams are broken down into four pods of three, based off of regular season records. Each team will play the other two teams in their respective pods, with the winner of each group of three advancing to a single elimination four-team bracket on Saturday and Sunday.

Tori Hester (West Rowan) will be playing for Troy. Troy is in a pool with UT Arlington and Georgia Southern.

 

Travel softball

Team NC (Helms/Horne 18U) won three more games on Sunday and finished the esason with a tournament championship.

Kary Hales (Carson) was 7-for-11. Ellen Yang (Salisbury) had a 3-for-4 game with a homer. Abbey Nixon (Carson) was 6-for-9 in the three games.