Missed Opportunities Cost Lady Flyers in Loss to Sea Devils
The Sandhills Community College volleyball team let set-point opportunities slip away in each of the first two sets and went on to suffer a 24-26, 27-29, 25-19 and 20-25 home loss to Cape Fear CC on Tuesday.
The Lady Flyers fell to 13-3 overall and 7-2 in Region 10 with their second loss in a row. The Sea Devils, 7-1 in Region 10 and 7-1 overall, remain in a tie for second place with Fayetteville Tech behind 6-0 Catawba Valley CC.
Coach Alicia Riggan's squad travels to Louisburg on Thursday for a 6 p.m. match that will not count in the conference standings. The Flyers defeated the Hurricanes 3-0 at home two weeks ago.
With both teams vying to stay close behind Catawba Valley, the Lady Flyers led throughout most of the first set. They took the lead for the last time at 24-23 on a kill by Christen Clontz before the Sea Devils took the 1-0 lead by scoring the next three points.
The second set was more of the same with long rallies and a number of lead changes. With the Flyers trailing 24-20, Riggan called a time out. A kill by Alexus McCrimmon, and a service ace by Daffron, completed a run of four straight points to tie it at 24-24.
A moment later, it was set-point Flyers, again at 26-25. Following two points in a row by the Sea Devils, a kill at the net by Carley Modlin tied it again at 27-27 before the visitors scored the final two points to gain the 2-0 advantage.
Denman, McCrimmon, Modlin and Clontz did most of the swinging as the Flyers converted 13 of 24 attack attempts in the process of winning the third set by a comfortable margin.
Trailing by as many as six points in the fourth set, a kill by Khaile Jones brought the Flyers to within a point at 19-20, but the Flyers 10th service error of the match turned the momentum back to the visitors.
"We played for first place on Saturday and fought a hard fought match," Riggan said, referring to the loss to No. 2 ranked Catawba Valley. "Tonight we're playing for second place and the intensity was just not there. Balls dropping on the floor, hitting balls out of bounds, missing serves – you just can't do that against good teams like this."
Denman led the Lady Flyers with a season-high 14 kills and 19 digs. Libero Mariah Daffron was credited with 27 digs, also a season-best. Setter Camryn Lowe contributed 27 assists.
The Flyers have non-conference dates at home next week against Patrick Henry CC (Tuesday) and Central Carolina CC (Thursday). They host Fayetteville Tech on March 19 in the regular season finale that could determine the third seed for the Region 10 tournament that gets a underway on March 22.
C. Bergmann