Triton’s varsity volleyball team rallied from a two-set deficit to win a five-set thriller at Harnett County and Tri-County Six 3-A Conference rival Harnett Central on Tuesday. Individual set scores were 22-25, 22-25, 28-26, 25-22 and 18-16.

“I told them before the game started, ‘We just need to forget about what’s happened so far,’” said Triton coach Wendy Simmons. “‘And from this day forward, we’re going to go undefeated.’ It didn’t click in until the third set, so I wasn’t real sure. We reached a goal and that’s a good thing, because we have been really struggling to reach goals this season that we set for ourselves and for our team. Tonight was heading in a positive direction and I was really glad to see them fight. When you’re down two sets, it’s very easy to give up, but something inside them clicked and we were ready to go after that.”

Harnett Central coach Jason Harrell said missed opportunities were costly.

“We had some opportunities and we just didn’t capitalize,” coach Harrell said. “Of course, Triton’s a big rival so you had a lot of emotions going. But we had opportunities and we should have taken advantage of them and we didn’t. That kind of hurt. But Triton played great. They hung in there. They got off to a slow start and then they started coming back and we just didn’t make an adjustment. We don’t quit, but we get down. And in the periods where we get down, we lose some points and we don’t recover fast enough from that. Mentally, we’ve just got to get tougher and close out games.”

Evie Pollard, Leah Brannon and Breigh Hobbs each recorded double-doubles to lead the Hawks (7-9, 2-3 TCSC). Pollard had 18 kills and 18 digs, Brannon had 11 kills and 17 digs and Hobbs had 23 assists and 10 digs.

“(Pollard) didn’t let up,” Simmons said. “She didn’t play scared to make a mistake. She went after the ball. And I need to see that from her.”

Blocking was a big factor at the net for Triton. Pollard had four blocks, Breonna McNeill and Bethany Norris had three apiece and Hobbs had one.

“I knew they were rivals, so I had to try really hard,” McNeill said. “I tried to put everything I had in every block.”

Defense in the back row was also a major key for Triton. In addition to Pollard, Brannon and Hobbs dig totals, Gracyn Slaughter had 20 digs and Maddie Stephens had 12.

“I felt like out of all of them, (Slaughter and Stephens) were in the position (on defense) they were supposed to more than some of the other ones,” Simmons said. “They were vacuum cleaners. I told them they couldn’t let anything hit the floor and they went after it.”

Setter Tyler Grace Gamblin returned from an ankle injury suffered at Midway the week prior. Despite not playing in the first set and subbing out when she rotated to the back row, Gamblin contributed one kill, 22 assists, five digs and one ace on seven service points.

“What really drove me to get better and take all the extra steps to work hard and get better was I wanted so badly to come out and play with my girls,” Gamblin said. “It’s my last year, so I put everything I had into getting better. I was working to get better with my hands when I was in the boot and it just pushed me to come back. And I was really excited tonight.”

“Her enthusiasm, just her playing for the love of the game and her skill level make a difference,” Simmons said. “She’s not ready to play all the way around yet. But I felt like after the first set she came in there and did an excellent job.”

Norris had six kills, seven digs and two aces on 13 service points. McNeill had six kills and six digs and held serve for four points. Hobbs had four kills and one ace on nine service points. Slaughter had three kills and held serve for one point. Grace Wilson had one kill. Pollard had one assist and one ace on four service points. Stephens had one assist and held serve for one point. Chelby Pascale held serve for four points.

Syniah McMiller had 20 kills and seven blocks, both match-high totals, to lead the Trojans (3-11, 1-4).

Harper Howell had eight kills, one assist, one block and 18 digs and held serve for seven points. Madeline Langdon had seven kills and eight digs and held serve for seven points. Ivanna Jones had five kills and six digs. Lauryn Waddell had four kills, two assists, three blocks, three digs and one ace on seven service points. Carlee Harrell had three kills, 37 assists, eight digs and three aces on 12 service points. Alexis Gordon had one kill, four assists, 22 digs and one ace on 11 service points. Laurie Blackwell had 17 digs and held serve for 10 points. Kayla Sadowski had four digs. Mikaela Goss had one dig.

Central held a late 21-13 lead in the first set before Triton rallied with a 9-3 run to cut the lead to two. But a service error gave the set to Central.

Triton led 18-14 in the second set, but Central rallied with an 11-4 run, capped by a McMiller block, to take the set and the 2-0 match advantage.

Late in the third set, Triton rallied from down 23-18 with a 7-2 run to take the set to extra points. With the score tied at 26-26, a Central error and a McNeill kill on an overpass gave Triton the set to keep the match alive.

The fourth set went down to the wire. Holding a 21-20 lead, Triton finished the set with a 4-2 run to send the match to a decisive fifth set.

The fifth set was a back-and-forth affair, going all the way to extra points. With the set tied at 16-16 Triton finished the match with back-to-back kills from McNeill and Brannon, both assisted by Hobbs.

Both teams begin the second half of conference play on the road on Thursday. Triton travels to Lee County and Harnett Central is at conference leader Union Pines.

“We’re a better team than our record,” Simmons said. “We know that. The girls know that. And I hope that when we go to the second go-round, the other teams in the conference will see that.”

“We’ve just got to, honestly, shake off our mistakes,” Pollard said. “Most of the time, we get in our heads and just go down from there. Tonight was totally different. We all shook off our mistakes whenever we made one.”