Lady Flyers Complete Successful Road Trip

If the first week of the regular season is any indication, the Sandhills Community College volleyball team is pretty comfortable playing on the road.

The Lady Flyers (4-1) wrapped up a two-day trip to Spartanburg, SC for the SMC Invitational by defeating USC Lancaster CC 25-18, 25-18 and 25-15, and USC Union 25-10, 25-13 and 25-15 in matches that got underway at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Saturday morning.

The afternoon before they swept Bryant and Stratton CC before losing in three close sets to Division I Spartanburg Methodist CC.

"Today I was excited about playing early because we practice early everyday so this was normal," Coach Alicia Riggan said. "Again we got off to a slow start. We had very high moments and then some slow moments that we need to work on."

Monday's scheduled match at Fayetteville Tech has been canceled. The Lady Flyers won't see action again until their home opener, a Region 10 match against Surry CC at 6 p.m. on Monday, February 8.

"This gives us a great opportunity to reset and work on some things we saw this weekend that are easy to fix," the coach said.

Carley Modlin led the team with eight kills in the win over USC Lancaster. Mya Mallard with 10 assists, and Mariah Daffron with 12 digs, were other statistical leaders.

Modlin added 11 more kills against USC Union and totaled 34 on 65 attacks (52%) in the four matches combined. Other leaders in the USC Union match were Camryn Lowe with 15 assists, Daffron with 10 digs , and Morrigan Denman and Christen Clontz with eight each.

Over the two days in SC, the Lady Flyers defeated two opponents from their Region 10 Division II conference in Bryant and Stratton CC and USC Lancaster. They were probably at their best on Friday in the process of the loss to Spartanburg Methodist.

"Yes, I thought yesterday we played more aggressive," Riggan said. "I was excited to see us down 24-23 and come back and win 26-24 over B&S.  Against SMC I thought each set we started out slow and behind and creeped our way back and taking leads each time. Losing 76-70 (combined points for three sets), the unforced errors with hitting, receiving and serving were game changers.

"I wish we had finished against SMC. They didn't give up and that's exciting. I am very excited for the season."

The early success away from home is a good thing for team confidence. Only seven of the Flyers' 21 matches this season will be held at The Hangar. That is a result of the team's late move from Division III to Division II after the schedules of most teams had already been completed. All of the matches so far have been streamed.

"SMC hosted a great tournament and the stream process is awesome too," Riggan said. "It's nice everyone can watch from home."

C. Bergmann