Lady Flyers Upset By Rockingham
Rockingham Community College upset the Sandhills Flyers 21-25, 25-15, 18-25, 25-13 and 13-15 on the annual Dig Pink Day at Heins Gymnasium Saturday afternoon.
The Lady Flyers dropped to 11-6 overall and 5-1 in Region X. They continue conference play with a match on Tuesday in Henderson against a Vance-Granville squad that is 9-5 and 1-3. The Vanguard lost twice to first place Patrick Henry CC, last week.
A season-high 16 service errors, as well as serve receive mistakes that came at inopportune times, plagued the Flyers in this one. Trailing 2-1 in sets, Morgan McCarthy and Paige Garner dominated in the middle in the fourth. The home team won it by a comfortable margin with outside hitter Chandler Adams finding the deep left corner for the final point.
The Flyers appeared to have the momentum, but leading 8-5 in the tie-breaker, the visitors drew even with three service aces in a row. It was tied again at 13-13 before the Lady Eagles won the final two points.
The Flyers had swept Rockingham (3-10, 2-5) on the road two weeks ago. McCarthy finished with a season-high 18 kills. Garner had nine kills and five solo blocks. Leah Salzwedel was credited with 39 assists. Erica Groff was the leader in digs with 20.
The largest home crowd in the history of Flyer volleyball walked past a path of luminary bags that ran from the sidewalk leading up to the John Dempsey Center and inside to the door of the gym. Each bag contained the name of a cancer survivor and the donor. All of the money raised through the luminaries, T-shirts and donations will be used to help with the medical expenses of North Moore High School junior Liz Ray who is battling cancer.
Four of the Lady Flyers and Coach Alicia Riggan are North Moore graduates.
"Unfortunately this year it's a lot more real to a lot of the ladies on our team and a lot of the people in the county," Sandhills athletic director Aaron Denton said afterward. "It's an honor to be able to raise money that will help with some of the expenses Liz and her family have incurred. It's something our coaches and players get behind every year."
C.Bergmann
Photo By: Donna Ford