Lowe Reaches Milestone as Lady Flyers Sweep Patrick Henry
Early in Tuesday's volleyball match at The Hangar, Camryn Lowe recorded the 1,000th assist of her Sandhills Community College career when she set up teammate Carley Modlin for a kill that gave the team a 5-0 lead.
The North Moore High School graduate finished with 36 assists as the Lady Flyers went on to defeat Patrick Henry CC 25-10, 25-14 and 25-12. Coach Alicia Riggan's squad improved to 15-3 with the non-conference win while the Patriots dropped to 0-9.
Lowe will be one of seven sophomores honored on Thursday when the Flyers entertain Central Carolina CC at 6 p.m. in another non-conference match.
The Lady Flyers were clicking on all cylinders in the first set as they converted 14 of 21 attacks with Christen Clontz, Morrigan Denman, Alexus McCrimmon and Khaile Jones also sharing in the action.
They weren't as sharp overall after that, but leading 10-2 in the third set, Rachel Patton hit a hard serve that found the floor on the other side without being touched by an opponent. That set up a brief celebration by teammates in behalf of the freshman who has seen limited action due to a knee injury.
The O'Neal School grad will undergo ACL surgery sometime after the completion of the season. In just her third appearance in a match, she added another ace and a couple of digs during her time on the court. According to Riggan, she has remained positive throughout.
"I was really excited to put my first-ever points on the books as a college player," Patton said. "It's hard some days to find the motivation to travel to games when I can't play, but my teammates and coaches lift me up and keep me positive."
The final point of the evening came with Lowe recording her third kill on as many attacks. The Flyers' kill percentage of .507 for the match was the team's highest since the .508 posted on October 14, 2017 in a sweep of USC Salkehatchie.
Modlin rose to fourth in the nation in kill percentage (.432) after converting 11 of 12 attacks with only one attack error. McCrimmon finished all seven of her attacks. Mariah Daffron led the team in digs with 15.
For the record, the Flyer standards for assists are: Single Match – Cheyenne Brown 51 (October 24, 2015, Walters State); Single Season – Abby Wallace 949 (2018); Career – Wallace 1,707 (2017-2018).
"We have been very fortunate to have talented setters come through our program," Riggan said. "Our setter is like the quarterback on the team. Lindsay McMannon is our setter coach and does a great job, working with them to continue to get better with each repetition.
"Camryn has really good hands. She does a great job controlling the ball and putting it where it needs to go. We are proud of her reaching 1,000 assists and look forward to many more with the Flyers."
A busy week of home dates continues with the final regular season conference match at 6 p.m. on Friday against Fayetteville Tech. Region 10 leader Catawba Valley CC (13-0) is No. 1 in this weeks NJCAA Division II poll.
C. Bergmann
