Midway downs Lakewood, 3-0

by John Lucas | Aug 22, 2018 | Midway

Karlee Martin connects on a kill for Midway on Tuesday.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

Midway’s varsity volleyball team took a season sweep over visiting Sampson County rival Lakewood with a 3-0 win Tuesday. Individual set scores were 25-19, 25-18 and 25-19.

“We communicated better (than in a 3-1 win at Lakewood last week),” said Midway coach Brandy Wrench. “We had some hard hits last week that they were digging out. Tonight, we had hard hits that were finding holes. I think that made a huge difference. We set our defense up better tonight. They had a few kills against us, but overall our defense was better and that made a huge difference.”

Senior Alyssa Wrench had 11 kills and one block, junior Caitlyn Holland had 13 assists and four aces on seven service points and sophomore Maranda Byrd had 20 digs to lead the Raiders (3-0).

Karlee Martin had five kills, four digs and one ace on nine service points. Erin Barefoot had two kills, two blocks and three digs and held serve for four points. Holland had two kills and four digs. Makayla Chavis had two kills and two digs. Alexis Jackson had one kill, one block and two digs and held serve for eight points. Sydney Williams had four assists, five digs and two aces on five service points. Byrd had three assists. Alyssa Wrench had three six digs and one ace on five service points. Jordan Wallum had two digs and held serve for three points. Natalie McPhail had two digs.

Coach Wrench was pleased with the play of the Raiders’ defense.

“Maranda is good at leadership,” coach Wrench said. “She likes to talk and regroup. That’s a positive. Natalie will take libero too, sometimes. She has good movement getting under the ball. Whenever we have both of them on the back line, that’s a positive. Then you have Alyssa, she’s good with reading the ball and digging it out. We have a really strong back line. We’ve got a great passing team.”

The Leopards (3-2) were led by senior Anna Beth Averette, with 14 kills and one block.

Midway took an early 9-4 lead in the first set, but Lakewood fought back to cut the lead to one, at 17-16. But Midway regrouped to end the set on an 8-3 run to take a 1-0 lead in the match.

The Raiders opened the second set hot on an 8-0 run. The Leopards battled, but Midway never allowed them to cut the lead to less than four in the set.

The third set was close early, but with an 8-7 lead, Midway went on a 12-7 run to take control, never allowing Lakewood to cut the lead to less than five from there.

Lakewood won the junior varsity match 2-1.

Midway is at Princeton (1-2) on Thursday before traveling to rival Triton (4-3) on Monday.

“Definitely going to be staying positive,” coach Wrench said. “Just continue to do our passes, setting, hitting, executing the plays basically. That’s what we’ve got to keep up. We’ve got to keep up our communication and execute those plays.”