Mattie Wheeless serves for South Johnston on Tuesday.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)
South Johnston’s varsity volleyball team improved to 2-0 on the season with a 3-1 win over visiting Midway by set scores of 25-12, 25-22, 23-25 and 25-15 on Tuesday.
“I’m proud of our effort,” said South Johnston coach Matthew Adams. “Right there, we were up 23-22 in the third set, so we were close to closing it out in three sets. We came out of a timeout and missed a serve. That’s a very bad change of momentum at a bad time. But even dropping that third set, we came out in the fourth set and were in control for pretty much the whole fourth set. I was proud of their focus, in that regard. Last night we won 3-0 (at Princeton). Tonight, we were up 2-0 and dropped the third set. So, it’s like, ‘How are we going to respond?’ Sometimes you don’t know. But I was proud they responded the way they did and played as well as they did in the fourth set.”
Miscues were costly for Midway.
“That’s what it all boiled down to was the mistakes,” said Midway coach Brandy Wrench. “It was all the point of the communication and the effort staying there. You make a mistake here and they let the next one slide and the next one slide, it’s hard to come back on. South Johnston has a great serve receive and there wasn’t much we served over there that they didn’t get back up. I think that kind of got us off, too. Seeing their consistency could get in our head, and I think we let that happen. Practice tomorrow is going to be focusing on our strategy and cleaning up our own errors.”
Junior Katon Blackmon had 11 kills and two blocks, senior Jenna Brown had 10 kills and three blocks and junior Mattie Wheeless had 37 assists, 12 digs and four aces on 14 service points to lead the Trojans (2-0).
LeeAnna Hines had seven kills and four blocks. Savannah Smith and Carlye Durham had four kills apiece. Jordyn Brown had three kills and held serve for five points. Paige Toler had two kills, one assist and two digs. Kennedy Byrd had one kill, two assists and 14 digs and held serve for three points. Callie Sutton had one kill, one assist, 12 digs and one ace on five service points. Erica Stanley had one assist, 10 digs and three aces on 12 service points. Blackmon had seven digs and two aces on seven service points.
Junior Allison Belflowers had eight kills and one block and senior Makayla Chavis had eight kills to lead the Raiders.
Makenzie Hudson had six kills, two blocks and two digs. Caitlyn Holland had five kills, 13 assists and 11 digs and held serve for six points. Jordan Wallum had three kills, two assists, eight digs and one ace on six service points. Chloe Baggett had two kills and three digs. Taylor Williams had two kills and one dig and held serve for two points. Sydney Williams had one kill, 17 assists, eight digs and two aces on five service points. Emma Clark had one kill. Maranda Byrd had four assists, 18 digs and one ace on seven service points. Natalie McPhail had nine digs. Chavis had six digs. Belflowers had three digs and one ace on five service points.
South opened the match with nine unanswered points, with Wheeless serving all nine points, including a pair of aces. The Trojans dominated the rest of the set.
Late in the second set, South held a 23-16 lead when a Baggett kill, assisted by Williams, sparked a 6-1 run to cut the lead two just two, but a free ball kill from Kennedy Byrd, assisted by Sutton, ended the set.
The third set was close throughout. With the score tied 23-23, a Hudson kill, assisted by Williams, and a Hudson block gave the Raiders the set to extend the match.
South opened the fourth set with a 9-1 run and dominated the remainder of the set to finish off the match.
“It’s kind of a team that’s been building to this point,” Adams said. “When they (the seniors) were freshmen, we won three games on varsity that year. Now we’re just kind of on the way back up. Last year I thought we competed most of the time we stepped out on the court. This year I think we have a good chance to win every time we step out on the court.”
South Johnston will travel to Garner Thursday to face Pine Forest in the first round of the Trojan Invitational, with the winner meeting the winner of Harnett Central vs Garner.
Midway travels to Sampson County rival Lakewood on Friday for a 3 p.m. game rescheduled from Monday because of a power outage at Lakewood.
LeeAnna Hines makes a kill for host South Johnston.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)
Kennedy Byrd makes a dig for South Johnston.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)
Allison Belflowers makes a kill for visiting Midway.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)
Makayla Chavis goes up to put down a point for the Raiders.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)
