Current and Former Lady Flyers Have Fun at the Hangar

The dozen freshmen members of the Sandhills Community College volleyball team got their first taste of playing against college players at Saturday's annual alumni scrimmage held at the Hangar.

The outcome was secondary to the opportunity to welcome back 10 former Flyers along with providing this year's squad with its first match experience following seven days of practice. The players on both sides, and the spectators, got caught up in what turned into an exciting five-set match won by the alums.

Coach Alicia Riggan's squad entertains the St. Andrews varsity and Surry Community College in another scrimmage at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The regular season opener follows at home against Johnson and Wales on Thursday, August 22.

"It was exciting," the coach said. "Neither team wanted to stop. We would have kept playing if lunch hadn't been waiting for them. This is what I dream of the alumni game being so competitive."

Stephanie Pages, a transfer from Pfeiffer University, is the only Lady Flyer with previous college experience. The alumni won the first two sets before the current Flyers rallied to take the next two, including a plucky 30-28 win in the fourth. The alums then won the fifth-set tiebreaker.

"It was definitely a learning experience, considering all of us are new and most of us had never met each other before now," freshman libero Willow Williams, a product of Southern Alamance high School, said afterward. "It showed that even if we are down we can come back and not to ever give up."

The match was a good test considering the alumni squad included Jordan Ward, Rachel Mashburn, Kaitlyn Lisenby and Abby Wallace from last season's 24-5 squad. The latter two earned all-region recognition and Wallace also earned  Region X Player of the Year and All-American honors.

Also taking the court for the alums was 2015 Region X Player of the Year Tiffany Hicks, who battled 6-foot freshman middle blockers Carley Modlin and Khaile Jones at the net throughout. Morgan McCarthy, (2017), Chandler Adams and Kaylee Lopez-Rosario (2016), Dara Forrest (2014) and Michelle Brown (2010) completed the alumni team.

Brown, a Richmond County grad, works at Pinehurst Medical Clinic. She was a member of the 2010 team coached by Riggan that competed in the national tournament held in Rochester, Minn. She participated in the alumni game for the fourth time.

"I loved it and I love the new gym," she said. "It's good to see how competitive the new players are."

Riggan is proud of how many of her former players have continued to be involved in volleyball as players and coaches.

Mashburn is headed for UNC-Charlotte and plans to try out for the club team. Another member of the 2018 squad, Tee'Ashia Lilly, missed Saturday's game because of her first day of practice at Fayetteville State. Ward is serving as a student assistant coach for Riggan and Hicks helps her sister Crystal, the head coach at North Moore High School.

Lopez-Rosario, who has served as an assistant coach at Pinecrest High School and AC Sandhills, makes her head coaching debut for Rocky River High School near Charlotte next Tuesday against West Mecklenburg. Chelsea Green, of last year's team, will be her assistant coach.

"It's super exciting to be able to run a volleyball program for the first time," says Lopez-Rosario who will also be working to complete her bachelor's degree in exercise science at UNC-Charlotte.

For Riggan, the scrimmage was a step in the right direction for the latest edition of the Lady Flyers.

"I felt that what we did today was 100 per cent worth it and I was proud of the alumni players," she said. "I thought they battled, they were competitive and they still have all the things we instilled in them.

"I think this was a good tester for our girls. We did a lot of great things, but we have a lot of things to work on. There is still so much we haven't covered, but it's going to help us prepare for this Saturday."

C.Bergmann