Flyers Take Hard Fought Victory Over Hurricanes

The 11th-ranked Sandhills Community College Flyers (12-4) secured a hard-fought 3-0 victory Monday night over Division II Louisburg College Hurricanes (3-3) at the Hanger on the campus of Sandhills Community College. The Flyers recorded the following scores in the win: 25-21, 25-18, 26-24.

"Yeah, I mean I feel like that's kind of been the nature of our season. Like our opponents have all been super scrappy, you know, great hard swings. Finding open holes, pushing through our blocks. I like how the girls responded. You know, I think that playing against teams like this, especially a division up, when the other team can be super scrappy and we can find open holes, that's only gonna make us better as we continue to move forward," said Flyers Head Coach Alica Riggan.

In the first set, the Flyers and Hurricanes battled point for point, with the Hurricanes gaining the upper hand early. Trailing 7-4, the Flyers offense gained momentum, fighting back to tie the match at 11-11. From there, the Flyers took the lead and held off a late surge from Louisburg to take the opening set.

The Flyers continued their momentum into the second set, jumping out to a 10-4 lead before the Hurricanes started to chip away. The Flyers found themselves ahead late, and despite one more push from the Hurricanes, Sandhills did just enough to take a two-set lead.

The third set was just as competitive as the first, with both teams battling point for point from start to finish. The Hurricanes started with the advantage, but the Flyers stormed back to take the lead. It was a back-and-forth affair, with both sides fighting past 25 points, but the Flyers ultimately came out on top.

"I just told them that we have not really faced a lot of five-one setters, she was very aggressive dumping balls. We had a little bit of struggle with that in each set, but really struggled (with the dumps) in the third set. Tonight we had an opportunity where we could get everybody in the game. Sometimes as we start to make changes, our foot just comes off the accelerator a little bit," Riggan said. "So, we just gotta really focus on that in the next couple days. We're a really good serving team and we gotta keep being aggressive."

"We also have to make sure that we're executing on every point instead of giving a team multiple chances to put the ball down," Riggan added.

Caroline Bradford led the Flyers in kills, coming away with 14 in the match. Kristin Dodds followed with seven kills, and Jenna Luquer recorded three kills. On the assist side, Mariana Clayton led the Flyers with 12, Zoey Hall followed with nine, and Sydney Garner had six on the night.

"I'm glad that everybody played tonight. It's a great opportunity whenever our whole team gets to get involved in the game," Lainey Mullins said. "I think we fought, but they really wanted it, and we need to keep the same pace the entire time instead of dropping our level."

On the defensive side, Clayton led the way with 11 digs, Nikki Lambert followed with nine, and Mullins and Hall each had eight digs in the match. Haley Whitaker recorded a block at the net, and Katelyn Bunting sent down three blocks. On the service line, Bradford and Lambert combined for five aces.

"Almost every team we face has been really, really scrappy and I think it motivates us to be scrappier because scrappy teams win. So, if you let 'em keep hanging in the game, they can come after you. So, you only gotta take care of it the first time and make sure everybody stays focused," Mullins said.

The Flyers will be back in action on Thursday when they travel to Jamestown, N.C., for a matchup with the Guilford Tech CC Titans at 6 p.m.

Z. Ciboth