Carmen Keene serves an ace for South Johnston.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)
South Johnston battled, but was unable to consistently close out sets in a 3-1 loss varsity volleyball loss to visiting Johnston County and Greater Neuse 3-A Conference rival West Johnston Tuesday. Individual set scores were 25-21, 25-20, 20-25 and 25-17.
“We definitely struggled to close,” said South Johnston coach Matthew Adams. “We led a good amount of this match to have lost it 3-1. I feel like we led sometimes all the way into the teens and even the 20’s and then just didn’t play well down the stretch. But hat’s off to them. They’ve got some great hitters. They’ve got a great setter. They pass well enough to run their offense. I think the difference in the third set was they didn’t pass as well and struggled a little bit in the serve receive. Their serve tonight, against our serve receive, I felt like we struggled. When we were able to run our offense, we did efficiently, but it was the times when we struggled to get the passes on serve receive that we struggled, because we were playing defense and they were playing offense. If you give that team enough swings, they’re going to put the ball down or their going to put pressure on you to make mistakes. We didn’t get as much offense as I’d have liked to.”
Coach Adams noted that Tuesday’s match was a significant improvement over the 3-0 loss at West Johnston Sept. 24.
“Compared to the last time we played at West, tonight was a completely different story,” coach Adams said. “We went over there and didn’t compete. So, I’m proud of the girls for competing, for fighting, for working hard. We just struggled in the serve receive and that hurt us against a good team.”
Junior LeeAnna Hines had 11 kills and three blocks and senior Kandis Adams had one of the best performances of her career with nine kills to lead the Trojans (8-9, 3-4 GNC).
“(Adams) played smart offensively,” coach Adams said. “Sometimes she likes to swing hard and it can go in or it can go off the wall. But she played smart tonight. And she’s big on the back row. She’s been just as important for us there as she has on the front row. I try to get her to see that when she’s struggling up front. Tonight I felt like she played more of a complete game, hit some smart shots and scored some points when she had the chance to.”
Katon Blackmon had eight kills. Savannah Hines had five kills and one block. Jenna Brown had four kills. Paige Toler had two kills. Carlye Durham and Kennedy Byrd had one kill apiece.
The Wildcats were led by senior Shelby Lackey, with 19 kills and six blocks, junior Megan Bost, with 13 kills and one block, senior Lauren Hesse, with nine kills and one block, and junior Madison Greene, with 50 assists.
The Wildcats (16-2, 5-2) held a late 22-20 lead in the first set when they went on a 3-1 run to end the set.
South led 20-18 late in the second set, but West rallied with a 7-0 run to take the set.
In the fourth set, South led 21-17 when a 3-0 run brought up set point. West tried to rally late again with a 3-0 run, but an error ended the set and kept the Trojans’ chances alive.
South opened the fourth set strong by taking an early 12-5 lead, but West rallied to tie it with an 8-1 run. With the score tied at 14, the Wildcats went on an 11-3 run to close out the match.
West Johnston also won the junior varsity match 2-0.
With just three matches left, South Johnston will look to use Thursday’s match at Smithfield-Selma to build momentum down the stretch in hopes of securing a playoff bid.
“We’ve got SSS Thursday, East Wake (at home for Senior Night) Tuesday and then we finish at Cleveland for their Senior Night on Thursday,” coach Adams said. “We would love to win out. We played Cleveland (which is unbeaten in conference play) well here, I thought. We put pressure on them and put up a good fight, but lost 3-0 (at home Sept. 25).
“But we got some confidence from the Clayton win (3-2 at Clayton, which is in second place in conference, last Thursday) and from competing here tonight. It would have been great if we could come out on top here to get a really great boost of confidence. But we know that we belong in the top half of the conference. We know that we can play with these teams. But we’ve talked about, ‘It’s not just good enough to be competitive. We want to win some games, too.’ That’s why that Clayton game was huge for us. Even though we lost tonight, I think we gained some confidence from putting up a good fight against a good team, a team that’s above us in the conference standings.
“We’re going to try our best to win out and that’s our goal. We’re fighting for a playoff spot. I don’t know what that looks like right now, but we want to carry some momentum into the conference tournament and see if we can get to the playoffs and extend the season as long as possible. These girls have been a great group and I would love for them to have a chance to compete in the state playoffs.”
Shelby Lackey of West Johnston hits in the Wildcats’ win.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)
Kandis Adams of South Johnston makes a kill against West Johnston.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)
Kennedy Byrd (19) executes a dig for South on Tuesday.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)
LeeAnna Hines puts away a point on Thursday for the Trojans.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)
Katon Blackmon goes up for a kill for South in a 3-1 loss to West.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)
